The fire caused extensive smoke damage to neighbouring buildings

Two shop assistants in a cycle store caused £1,600,000 worth of damage by setting fire to a mouse while they were ‘bored’.

Dysney Sibbons, 23, and Ashley Finley, 25, used an accelerant to set the rodent alight in what has been described as an act of ‘sheer stupidity’.

The fire then tore through the Cycle King shop in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, before spreading to a nearby pub and restaurant.

It also caused extensive smoke damage to neighbouring buildings and more than 60 firefighters were needed to tackled the blaze.


Ipswich Crown Court heard that Sibbons, of Stowmarket, Suffolk, and Finley, of Elmswell, Suffolk, had set fire to the mouse On September 29, 2017, ‘to amuse themselves on a boring day’.

Both men pleaded guilty to arson (Picture: BBC Oxford)

They will be sentenced in June (Picture: BBC Oxford)

They both pleaded pleaded guilty to arson being reckless as to whether property would be damaged.



Previously the pair had both denied starting the fire.

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Steven Dyble, for Finley, said his client hadn’t anticipated the catastrophic consequences of his actions.

Both men were bailed and will be sentenced in June.

The case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports to be prepared by the probation service.

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