A THUG set fire to his girlfriend’s flat after she vanished before dousing a police car with petrol and trying to set it alight, a judge was told.

Courtney Bampton was taken back to her flat in Reading during the early hours of the morning after being reported missing.

When she arrived at the door however, she was stunned to find thick plumes of black smoke.

The blaze came just days after a row with her then boyfriend, Steffan Cook, who was at the forefront of the police’s list of suspects.

When officers tracked the 23-year-old to an address in Southcote, he poured petrol over the patrol car before igniting the fuel.

Cook was jailed for 36 months after he admitted charges of arson and attempted arson.

Prosecuting, Jonathan Sank said: “In July last year he was in a relationship with Courtney Bampton, 18. They had known one another for around three years.

“On the evening of July 6 she was reported missing.

“Police officers found her and after her wellbeing was ascertained they dropped her at home.

“She went up the stairs to her flat and as she did she could smell smoke, as she got closer to her flat it got stronger and stronger.”

Fire investigators extinguished the blaze and discovered a string of clues that it was arson, including a toaster on the bed and an oven door left wide open.

Thames Valley Police traced Cook to an address in Southcote and began to look for him.

Mr Sank continued: “A neighbour saw him pouring petrol over the vacant marked police car and then leave a trail of petrol leading from the car to the jerry can.

“He set the fuel alight leading to flames of around one or two feet in height.

“It didn’t take hold and extinguished itself.”

Cook admitted one count of arson and one of attempted arson at an earlier hearing. He was jailed for three years.

Sentencing, Judge Paul Dugdale said: “Your record is appalling.

“To start a fire to someone in a flat when there is a flat underneath is something the court has to treat seriously.

“You tried to set fire to a police car which the court has to treat seriously for obvious reasons. People cannot go around trying to set fire to police cars without realising that if they get caught they will go to prison.”

Cook, of Roswell Park, Emmer Green, was also given a two-month concurrent sentence for handling stolen number plates and served a restraining order, banning him from contacting Ms Bampton.

Steven Talbot Hadley, defending Cook, said his client had suffered with alcohol problems prior to the fires.

He added: “He has 19 offences but nothing of this nature. He appreciates he is going to have to do something about the way he lives his life.”