A DIRECTOR of a long-standing Musselburgh company caused more than £200,000 of damage after he set fire to its premises.

Edgar Colliander set fire to a pile of cardboard in the unit housing his father’s company Sunrite Blinds after the firm began suffering from financial difficulties.

The 35-year-old company director caused £237,264 of damage to the Newhailes Industrial Estate building, but fortunately no neighbouring residential properties were affected by the flames.

Colliander, of Sheriff Park, Edinburgh, appeared at the Capital’s sheriff court on Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to the fire-raising charge.

Fiscal depute Ann MacNeill told the court that Sunrite Blinds – which began suffering from financial difficulties in about June 2014 – had been set up by Colliander’s father in 1972 and employed about 40 people.

Ms MacNeill said that a neighbour spotted smoke pouring from the business premises at about 4.30pm on Sunday, January 25 last year, and called the emergency services.

Fire crews raced to the scene and, after the fire was under control, investigations showed the fire was started at two separate locations within the factory that stored cardboard.

Colliander was subsequently spotted on the company’s own CCTV footage leaving the unit just minutes before the fire was reported.

Ms MacNeill said: “He was subsequently challenged about this matter and he accepted it was him on the CCTV.”

The fiscal added that the insurance value of the damage caused by Colliander amounted to a massive £237,264 and that the property had been leased from a landlord.

David Hunter, defending, said his client’s firm had gone into liquidation shortly after the fire, and that “most of the damage to the stock had been smoke damage”.

Mr Hunter added that there had been “no injury to any persons” during the incident and that Colliander’s behaviour was “very odd and difficult to understand”.

Sheriff Frank Crowe decided to defer sentence for the preparation of social work reports and a Restriction of Liberty Assessment to March 8.

Colliander pleaded guilty to wilfully setting fire to cardboard packaging at Sunrite Blinds, Unit 4 Newhailes Industrial Estate, Musselburgh, with the fire causing extensive damage to items and goods within the premises and to the building structure on January 25 last year.

A plea of not guilty to attempting to set fire to items within the premises and thus attempting to set fire to the premises on January 24 last year was accepted by the Crown.