Elgin Poundland fire - Teenager given supervision at Inverness Sheriff Court

A teenage college student who started a devastating fire which destroyed the Poundland store in Elgin will not face a custodial sentence.

Last month, a jury at Inverness Sheriff Court took less than an hour to find the 17-year-old - who cannot be named for legal reasons - guilty of starting the blaze on August 12, 2022.

The fire was started when the teen set female sanitary products alight. It caused around £1 million worth of damage.

Sheriff Macdonald said she was not considering a sentence of detention for the young man.

Instead she ordered him to be under supervision from social workers for the next two years.

Bill Adam, counsel for the accused, told Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald, who had deferred sentence for a background report, that his client has “matured” since the incident.

"He has matured a great deal since the commission of this offence when he was immature and feckless,” Mr Adam said.

"He is no longer keeping the company he was at the time and has stopped drinking.

“He is concentrating on his apprenticeship which he hopes to continue."

Sheriff Macdonald told the teenager: "In your own words, your actions were stupid.

“They were shocking and alarming and I don't think you knew that your stupid behaviour would have the results it did. I am sure you got an awful fright.

“You are lucky no-one was harmed but people have had to pay the financial consequences."

The trial heard that on August 12, 2022, the youth set fire to female products in an aisle of the store, which then spread to other goods including aerosol canisters.

The entire contents of the building were destroyed in the fire and nearby buildings were also damaged.

CCTV footage of the incident showed a man holding a lighter against the products in the High Street store, before walking away with friends.

Three members of staff were cashing up at the time of the fire and helped the last remaining customer, who was in a wheelchair, to safety.

Fiscal depute Susan Love told the jury that the teenager “set fire to a sanitary product in Poundland which started a massive blaze”.

She continued: "The CCTV doesn’t lie”, and asked the jury to reject suggestions put by Mr Adam that a second fire had been started and that it could have been by one of two girls.

Ms Love said there was no evidence of this before the jury, that one of the girls was not even in the store at the time and the second girl was simply sweeping her hair from her face.