The boss of a Liverpool carpet company set fire to his warehouse in order to claim £200,000 in insurance, a court has been told.

Elliot Ross used disposable barbecues to destroy Floorcoverings’ Knowsley Industrial Park warehouse on 19 August 2009 because of the ‘dire financial situation’ of the company, Liverpool Crown Court was told.

Ross denies arson and four charges of fraud between January and September 2009.

‘There is no doubt at all that the fires and damage were caused deliberately, said Simon Berkson, prosecuting. ‘The prosecution say that there can be no doubt that they were caused and set by this defendant in a cynical and deliberate attempt to then con the insurance companies who insured the business and his vehicles out of the amounts that they had insured the defendant’s business and vehicles for.’

The fire spread through the industrial estate casing millions of pounds of damages.

Berkson told the court two barbeques had been lit in the pallet yard next door to Floorcoverings and a third had been found smouldering on a windowsill of the warehouse. He said this had been filled with toilets rolls, newspaper and cardboard. The toilets rolls matched those used at Floorcoverings, while the cardboard was from a pair of gloves bought at a local Asda. The gloves were bought at the same time as a person using the defendant’s mobile phone was at the store. The same person also bought extra long matches and white spirit.

He said business at Floorcoverings had been badly hit and Ross had made two false claims to the factoring company Floorcoverings used to ease cashflow and that insurance on the warehouse had been increased months before the fire.

An Floorcoverings employee said he was told to stack carpets in front of the window, where the barbecue was later placed.

‘What was intended, the prosecution say was clear, that a fire would damage or destroy the defendant’s business sufficiently that he could claim on the insurance for the business,’ said Berkson.

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