8 inside when house fire lit | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

A Hastings man who set an early-morning fire in a Hastings house occupied by eight people was yesterday sentenced to six months' community detention.

Appearing before Judge Geoff Rea in Napier District Court was Scott Peter Bulman, 26, having previously pleaded guilty to a charge of arson relating to the fire that was lit about 12.15am on June 21 last year.

He also faced sentence on a charge of breaching an intensive supervision order and re-sentence on Hamilton-based matters Judge Rea said were not too dissimilar to those before the court.

The house, part of a residential care facility, was evacuated by staff and no one was injured. But the lounge in which Bulman ignited a sheet with a lighter, and then watched the fire take hold, was extensively damaged.

According to a summary, a short while earlier Bulman had tried to dismantle a smoke alarm in his room to avoid being detected smoking but he set the alarm off and the Fire Service was called.

Considering submissions by defence counsel Roger Phillip and Crown prosecutor Fiona Cleary, Judge Rea told Bulman Mr Phillip "has really gone the extra mile for you" in trying to help him.

The community detention will include a 7pm-7am curfew, varied by three hours on Monday nights, and Judge Rea said: "You light any more fires and we've really got no choice but to take you out of circulation."

The judge ordered Bulman to pay more than $5800 in reparation.