A ‘VULNERABLE’ teenager who torched an elderly couple’s Accrington terrace home and put lives at risk has been sent to detention for two years.

Amer Ahmed, then 17, and who has learning difficulties, was in the empty property in Richmond Hill Street with others and started the blaze on January 9 last year, after falling in with the wrong crowd.

The fire spread through lofts into neighbouring property, residents were evacuted and six houses were damaged as a resullt of the fire.

House owner Thomas Cunliffe and his wife had moved out of their home the previous August to be nearer their daughter, were selling it.

They lost £34,000 on the £60,000 selling price, after the house was almost destroyed in the blaze, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Ahmed, 18, who cannot read or write, was said to have been encouraged into offending by others.

They took advantage of the fact he was suggestible.

He had also been in a gang which threatened two terrified schoolboys with milk bottles in the street, leaving them unable to sleep for months afterwards.

The defendant, of Higher Antley Street, Accrington, had admitted affray and arson being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

Sentencing him, Judge Simon Newell said: “There was a potential here for huge loss of life.”

Daniel Prowse, for Ahmed, said the affray must clearly have been upsetting and scary for the victims.

The barrister said: "The defendant understands that whilst nobody was actually hurt, it's the potential for harm that makes the offence a serious one."

He said that Ahmed deeply regretted what he had done and there was no evidence other than his confessions.