No Smoke Without Fire

 

Did you hear the story about the chap who insured a packet of cigarettes?  He made a claim, saying that they had been destroyed in a series of tiny fires.  Sadly, the wheeze backfired when the insurance company launched a counter-claim, accusing him of arson, which he lost.

With this story in mind, I was surprised to read this sorry tale in the Times today;

A man who tried to gas himself but then changed his mind and lit a cigarette, causing an explosion, has been convicted of arson.  Ian Noll, 39, from Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, was given a 12-month community service order at Newport Crown Court and ordered to take an enhanced thinking skills course. 

Looking on the bright side, it could be worse.  If you believe what you read in the Daily Mirror, he didn’t survive the accident at all, as the news story bears the rather more dramatic headline;

Suicide plot man accidentally kills himself

Perhaps Ian will be joined on his advanced thinking skills course by a certain tabloid journalist and a certain Welsh magistrate?