A dad who torched his own home in the hope his family would be moved has avoided jail.

Adrian Burgess set fire to his housing trust home in Cypress Grove, Elvington, and even penned fake death threats to his family.

The menacing letter to his wife, mum-of-three Theresa Burgess, warned that her husband would be killed, adding: "I am watching you every day. You had better watch your back."

The day after the letter was sent, the family woke up to find their home alight.

But firefighters and police officers called to the scene in November 2014 became suspicious as there was no evidence of a break-in, a judge heard.

When forensic experts looked closely at the death threats and traced indentations in the paper, they found a vital clue.

The person who penned the letter had also written over it: "We are going to lose the house because we owe lots of rent."

"There was no obvious innocent reason for the fire to break out" - Prosecutor Craig Evans

Now Burgess, 52, has received a suspended jail sentence after admitting starting the fire himself in the hope his family would be re-housed to near Canterbury.

Prosecutor Craig Evans told Canterbury Crown Court that firefighters had been called to the scene at 8.30am on November 10 after a call from Mrs Burgess.

She and her children, aged 20 and 19, were found safe and well nearby and the fire, behind a sofa in the living room, had been extinguished by Burgess using buckets of water.

It was then Mrs Burgess told how she had called police a day earlier to report a man in a black car handing her a letter as she put out the rubbish – but checks revealed no such call had been made.

Mr Evans added: “There was no obvious innocent reason for the fire to break out in the living room. There was nothing electrical in the area, no smoke and there were no candles.

“The family claimed they had gone to bed the previous night and locked the back door. Burgess claimed he found the back door unlocked and the key missing.”

He said the family had money problems and their benefits had been stopped and Mrs Burgess wanted to move to Canterbury to be closer to her family.

“This was an arson carried out in an effort to speed up the process of them moving to a new property," he added.

Mr Evans said fire experts said that although little damage had been caused, it could have spread to adjoining properties if it hadn’t been extinguished quickly.

Judge Heather Norton told the Crown Prosecution Service barrister that she was surprised that Mrs Burgess hadn’t also faced charges in relation to the incident, either attempting to pervert the course of justice or wasting police time.

Paul Hogben, defending, said Burgess worked in two Dover charity shops as a volunteer.

He was given a 21 month jail sentence suspended for 18 months after admitting arson and ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work for the community.