A FIRERAISER who set fire to a recycling box within his own stairwell has been placed on a community payback order.

Scott McQueen set alight paper within the recycling box inside the front door of the block he lived in at the time at Wellside, Haddington.

The firestarter was caught as he lit the paper as a passing fire chief and two police officers spotted him bending down towards the box through the front door’s frosted glass.

After entering the stairwell, the officers spotted Young heading upstairs to his flat wearing a dressing gown and carrying three lighters.

Fire chief David Hopkinson had been attending an earlier fire at nearby Dobson’s Place and he and the two officers were doing a “recce” of the area after fires had been set previously.

McQueen, 31, had claimed he had just been out the back of the flats for a cigarette and that he had nothing to do with the attempted blaze.

But following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month, McQueen was found guilty of setting fire to paper in the recycling bin to the danger of neighbouring occupants at Wellside on February 2 last year.

He returned to court for sentencing on Monday, where Sheriff Robert Fife issued a 250-hour unpaid work order which must be completed within 12 months.

Previously, Haddington watch manager Mr Hopkinson told the court that he had attended the previous fire at Dobson’s Place and was showing police around the area.

He told the court that while walking past the Wellside block of flats at about 3.20am he “spotted an outline behind the door” and smoke coming from the area. He said that once inside the stairwell he saw the recycling box smouldering and that in his opinion it had been lit within 60 seconds of them arriving.

Sgt Suzanne Jeffrey of Police Scotland told the court she was with the fire chief when they spotted McQueen’s outline within the flat stair.

She said she saw “a figure bending down and pushing paper through the letterbox” from the inside.

She entered the stair and, after grabbing hold of McQueen as he made his way upstairs, her colleague searched him and found the lighters in his pocket.

The officer said: “There is no doubt in my mind the male had set the fire in the recycling box.”

McQueen, who has since moved to High Street, Dunbar, gave evidence during the trial and claimed he had been woken by the smell of smoke from the Dobson’s Place fire and had gone outside to have a cigarette.

The chef, who lived on the top floor at Wellside, said that when he came back in to the stair he could smell smoke coming from the recycling box and was just checking it when the officers spotted him.

He told the court: “I was going upstairs to get something on my feet. I did not set any fires at all or anything of that nature.”

But following all the evidence, Sheriff Robert Fife told McQueen his evidence was “neither reliable or credible” and there was “overwhelming evidence” that McQueen was the culprit.