A MAN denied using one of his son's T-shirts to improvise a petrol bomb to burn down his brother-in-law's garage.

Burned rags made of a similar material to shirts worn by his son were found at the scene, a court was told.

Alan Norman admitted buying petrol from a service station 45 minutes before the garage and van belonging to Paul Derbyshire went up in flames.

Yesterday, Norman, aged 34, of Gas Street, Heywood, appeared at Bolton Crown Court to to deny two charges of arson.

The jury was shown video footage from a CCTV camera at Rose Acre garage, Heywood, opposite Norman's home, showed him filling a can of petrol.

Earlier Norman had been to a wedding reception and drunk about 10 pints of lager, leaving at10pm after a row on the phone with his brother-in-law.

Norman claimed he bought the petrol to go quad biking.

Forty minutes after the petrol had been bought a fire broke out in the garage of Norman's brother-in-law Paul Derbyshire in Sunnybank Road, Whitefield. About £1,900 worth of damage was caused.

Police found 4.66 litres of petrol in the container but the garage receipt showed Norman had bought 5.47 litres.

Proceeding