A MAN who set fire to a locker in a busy Newport club has been sentenced to 29 months in prison.

James Morgan, 27, appeared before Newport Crown Court today after pleading guilty to arson while being reckless as to whether life is endangered.

The incident occurred on Friday July 17 at Chameleons, in Pill, an establishment which is also known as the Green House Sauna during the week.

The court watched CCTV footage of Morgan entering the venue and registering as a member at the counter.

At around 2am, he is shown on the footage as being in the male changing room wearing a towel and getting dressed.

He is seen approaching another locker which is open and throwing a towel inside before setting fire to it and leaving the locker ajar.

Morgan then leaves the room, but is seen returning twice to look, before leaving again.

The fire was contained to the wooden locker, but smoke and flames could be seen on the footage.

Another man then enters, notices the fire, and alerts a staff member who is able to put it out using a fire extinguisher.

The court heard Morgan, from St Margaret’s Mead, Marlborough, Wiltshire, had travelled to the establishment to meet a lady, who didn’t turn up, and during the evening he had consumed eight cans of lager.

At the time of the incident the established is said to have had between 40 and 50 patrons inside.

The club had all of Morgan's personal details from his registration form and the police arrested him at his home address the following Monday. He was taken to Newport Central Police Station.

After being shown the CCTV footage, he told officers he set the fire so the smoke would trigger the alarms and force everyone inside to go outside in nothing but their towels.

After leaving he said he got into his car and drove home despite having consumed alcohol.

At the time of the offence, Morgan was subject to a community order for an offence of wasting police time for making a false complaint and he also had two previous convictions for criminal damage.

His Honour Christopher Llewellyn-Jones QC said: “If that locker had gone up it would have put the lives of others in danger.

“Courts have to treat offences of arson very seriously because of the great danger they cause to life and the ease in which such offences can be started.”

He sentenced him to 28 months imprisonment for this offence and sentenced one month to run consecutively for breaching the community order.