A MAN started a fire at his mother’s address and then rang his sister making comments about burning the house down.

Blackburn magistrates heard his sibling called the emergency services and initially Nicky John McPhee refused to let them into the house.

McPhee, 28, of Morley Avenue, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to arson and criminal damage to a windscreen belonging to Shannon Grimes.

He was remanded on bail for the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Rafih Khan, prosecuting, said the first offence had been the criminal damage.

McPhee had been involved in an argument with his ex-partner who he believed had cheated on him.

“She packed her things into her car and went home,” said Mr Khan. “Shortly after she was contacted by a friend who said the defendant was on the Tinder dating site and she drove to confront him about this.”

McPhee came out and there was a heated argument.

“During that he punched the windscreen of her car causing it to smash,” said Mr Khan. “While he was on bail for that incident he made the call to say he had started the fire.”

The court was shown a photograph of the fire on a window bottom which melted the plastic.

His sister told police he had a lot of mental health issues and a lot of his problems stemmed from the death of his father in 2021.

Jonathan Taylor, defending, said his client had smashed the windscreen during an argument over whether his partner had been unfaithful.

“He had social media evidence to show that she had and they both said some hurtful things,” said Mr Taylor.

He said the mental health problems which led to the arson charge had been brought on by drink and drugs which he turned to following the death of his father.”

He said McPhee had set fire to a catch on the window and had sent footage of the fire to his sister as a cry for help.

“This has been a wake-up call for him and he knows he has to make sure he dies not get himself into this situation again,” said Mr Taylor.