A FIRE-RAISER who set alight a recycling box packed with paper was caught out when he was spotted by a fire chief and two police officers who were passing his block of flats at the time.

Scott McQueen lit the paper in the box which was situated inside the front door of the block of flats where he lives at Wellside in Haddington.

But as he set the paper alight, his outline through a frosted glass window was seen by David Hopkinson, the watch manager at Haddington Fire Station, and two police constables.

Mr Hopkinson had been in attendance at a previous fire that evening at the town’s Dobson’s Place and was giving the officers a tour of the area as there had been previous suspicious fire-raising incidents nearby.

But as the three passed by the Wellside flats, they saw a figure “bending down” inside the common stair and smoke coming from the communal letterbox just seconds later.

The officers entered the building to see McQueen halfway up the stairwell and heading back to his own flat.

When he was searched by the officers, they discovered he had three lighters in his dressing gown pocket.

McQueen, 31, 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, McQueen was found guilty of setting fire to paper in the recycling bin to the danger of neighbouring occupants on February 2 last year.

Haddington watch manager Mr Hopkinson told the court that he had attended the previous fire at Dobson’s Place and was giving the police “a recce of the area” as there had been several previous incidents of fire-raising nearby.

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 that she was with the fire chief when they spotted McQueen’s outline within the flat stair.

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

She added that she entered the stair and, after grabbing hold of McQueen as he made his way upstairs, her colleague had 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 an address at High Street, Dunbar, also 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 that his evidence was “neither reliable nor credible”.

He added that there was “overwhelming evidence” from the Crown witnesses that McQueen was the culprit.

Sheriff Fife deferred sentence for the preparation of reports to next month and told McQueen that “all options remain open to the court” when he returns for sentencing.