A TENANT smashed up his home and set fire to it because he believed bailiffs were coming to take his belongings.

Craig Wakefield filled a bag with personal possessions before fleeing the burning house.

He called police to tell them about the blaze, and he was found heading towards a bridge.

Wakefield had been left in debt by his divorce and hit by a number of tragedies – including the death of his boss in a helicopter crash.

He had not been sleeping or eating, and shortly before the night of the arson, on August 22, he received a letter about Council Tax arrears.

A court heard that a psychiatrist said the 48-year-old was suffering a “severe depressive episode”.

A sympathetic judge freed Wakefield after hearing his job of 20 years is being kept open and his landlords are prepared to re-home him.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Broadacres Housing Association considered him a “model tenant” since he moved into the house in Dowber Way, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, in 1999.

The fire wrecked the entire upstairs of the mid-terrace property, but the ground-floor was unscathed, and the repair bill is around £7,300.

Wakefield appeared for the hearing on a video-link from HMP Hull, and will have been released as soon as official paperwork was completed.

His lawyer, James Fenney, told the court: “He has been in custody for 14 weeks and he has benefited from it. He has been a peer mentor, and attained advanced prisoner status.”

Wakefield admitted a charge of arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered and was given a 14-month jail sentence, suspended for two years.

Judge Sean Morris told him: “You have been a model citizen, but you have had some hard times.

“You have a daughter who is close by and will assist in your rehabilitation.”