A JURY will today continue to consider their verdict in the case of a couple alleged to have torched a pub in an insurance scam.
Jurors were last night granted permission to retire overnight after the case concluded yesterday morning.
The prosecution claims landlord Dean Thomas started the blaze at The Tollhouse Inn in Southampton Road, Lymington, with the knowledge of his wife Melynda because their business was failing and they were thousands of pounds in debt.
Southampton Crown Court heard the fire ripped through the pub destroying the stairwell and upper floor and cost more than £100,000 to repair.
Five people – the couple, their daughter, her boyfriend and a cook – were in the premises at the time but escaped uninjured.
Dean Thomas, 42, and Melynda Thomas, 36, deny arson when reckless as to whether life might be endangered. Dean Thomas has also pleaded not guilty to an allegation of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
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