A MAN who set fire to a woman’s car after a drunken row has received a three-year jail sentence.

Andrew Ways blamed the red mist on his drink and drug fuelled rampage which saw him destroy a television and mirrors, set light to the victim's Fiat Stilo car and then reverse his own van into it.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 22 year-old had been drinking with the victim and her friend, an on-off girlfriend of Ways, and also consumed a large amount of cocaine.

The trio went to a house party and then went back to the victim’s home in Ampleforth Road, Middlesbrough. There Ways took exception to a text message his sometime partner received from another man.

Prosecutor, Yvonne Taylor, said Ways became angry, kicking a television, shattering its screen, knocking a mirror off the wall and kicking another mirror, which broke into pieces.

He then went outside to his van, grabbed a fuel can, returned, and flung it from side to side, splashing the two women with petrol.

The victim locked Ways out and called the police. From her bedroom window she then witnessed him pouring petrol over the front of her car.

Mrs Taylor said: “He knelt down and she saw the front of the car go up in flames."

Ways then got into his van and reversed it into the Fiat before driving off.

He admitted arson, criminal damage and careless driving on March 21 this year and a separate offence of assault after he threw a bottle of soft drink at a petrol station sales assistant, hitting her on the shoulder.

Zoe Pasfield, mitigating, said the former soldier’s cocaine consumption had a dramatic effect on him and he had over-reacted.

She said: “At the point the red mist descended his temper was lost and he lost control of his emotions.”

She said Ways, of Windlestone Drive, Middlesbrough, was trying to address his drug use and also apologised to the victim.

Judge Tony Briggs said Ways had behaved in a “dangerous and disgraceful way” and jailed him for a total of three years.