Dagenham market trader found guilty of arson over torching of £260k Ferrari

Wasim Ahmad Mir, 47, of Cranley Drive, Newbury Park, appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court charged with one count of damaging property and being reckless as to whether life was in danger and a second count of arson.

The charges related to an incident which took place on September 7, 2016, when Raja Bassi’s Ferrari Spider was incinerated on the driveway of his home in Nelmes Crescent, Emerson Park.

After a two day trial, Mir was cleared of the first charge but unanimously found guilty of arson by the jury after less than a day’s deliberations.

The prosecution claimed that the attack was Mir’s revenge for “a property deal gone wrong”, and that at the time of the fire, Mr Bassi had been a director of ABC Gone, an estate agent’s in Ilford, which struck a deal to sell a Chelmsford property owned by Mir that eventually fell through.

Mir believed the company had deliberately drawn out the deal in at attempt to drive up commission charges and even threatened to sue the company for £500,000.

A petrol can found on a wall at the house and a matchbox Mr Bassi found near the car both had Mir’s DNA on them.

But Mir insisted he had been set up, and that Mr Bassi had in fact asked to borrow the petrol can from him a few weeks before the fire.

During the trial, the jury watched CCTV from a house three doors down showing a hooded man get out and walk towards the Bassi’s home after a car pulls up.

Minutes later he returns carrying something before getting unaided into the unidentified car which drives off.

However, during the trial Mir claimed he had a fractured ankle, tibia and fibia.

Usha Shergill, prosecuting, insisted Mir broke his ankle when he fell climbing the wall of Mr Bassi’s home before setting the car alight.

She said he was angry the sale went wrong and wanted to teach Mr Bassi a lesson.

He is due to be sentenced on December 18 at Snaresbrook Crown Court.