Editor’s note: Solicitors for the defendant Joseph Faiz wrote confirming that their client was acquitted by the jury of all four arson charges at trial at Paisley Sheriff Court on 6 June 2022.
A RENFREWSHIRE man has been charged over a series of fires in his quiet home village.
Joseph Faiz is said to have started four blazes deliberately, including one at a primary school.
Prosecutors claim Faiz, of Houston Road, Houston, set four fires between May 25 last year and January 1 this year.
It’s claimed the 21-year-old started a blaze at Paul’s Fast Food, in Crosslee Crescent, Houston, by setting fire to “refuse and storage containers there” and damaging those items and cabling at the premises.
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On the same day he is said to have set fire to “refuse and storage containers” at the Co-Op in the same street, damaging them and guttering at the premises.
And on January 1 he is said to have torched a “poly tunnel” at Houston Primary School, causing it to be destroyed.
That same day he is said to have targeted the Co-Op again, setting fire to “refuse and storage containers”.
Faiz was detained in connection with the blazes and held in police custody before appearing in the dock at Paisley Sheriff Court.
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He made no plea to the four charges of wilful fireraising he faces during the hearing, where he was represented by defence solicitor Gemma Elder.
The case was continued for prosecutors to investigate further and he was released on bail with special conditions.
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