TWO men have been jailed for a petrol bomb attack on a seaside pizza shop run by Iraqis and asylum seekers.

The attack, on the first day of the war in Iraq, was suggested by Gordon Robb, whose soldier brother was stationed in Kuwait.

Robb even waged a £50 bet that he would dare to do it, said Stephen Ashurst, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court on Friday.

The fire at the takeaway, in Roseberry Square, Redcar, burned itself out, causing about £1,000 of damage.

Businessman Robb, 35, handed £10 to his employee, carpet fitter David Haley, 20, and sent him to buy petrol and a can, the court heard.

Robb and Sean Camfield, 36, said to him on his return: "Right, we're going, are you coming?"

Haley told police later that he had no involvement in assembling the bombs. Robb and Camfield each had a petrol bomb but Camfield told them he could not go through with it, said Mr Ashurst.

He said that Robb returned later, saying: "I showed it to the Talibans inside," and asked for his £50 bet winnings.

A man in the pizza shop with his eight-year-old son said a man, probably Robb, beckoned him outside saying: "Get the kid out of the way," the court was told.

David Lamb, defending, said of Robb: "He has effectively destroyed the next however many years of his life."

Jim Withyman, defending Camfield, said that he left the petrol bomb in an alley when he heard that the shop was open, realising it was a dangerous thing to do.

Haley, who co-operated with police, was attacked while on remand in Holme House Prison, Stockton, where other inmates labelled him a grass.

Judge Peter Bowers said: "This attack was an extremely grave crime, as you all realise, against innocent members of our community.

"It's quite clear from the evidence that you were motivated by both drink and racial hatred of Iraqis at a time when the nation was at high tension because of the war that had just started."

Robb, of Westfield Way, Dormanstown, was jailed for five years, and Camfield of Lingdale Grove, Dormanstown, was jailed for four years.

Sentence was deferred for six months on Haley, of Tees Road, Redcar, after all three pleaded guilty to arson being reckless whether lives were endangered on March 20.