A yob who staged a bizarre explosion on a Medway council estate as part of a vendetta against a Turkish shopkeeper has been jailed for five years.

Mark Marchant filled an inflatable mattress with petrol or gas, placed it on a fence and ignited it just seconds after a car had passed by.

CCTV footage graphically showed how a passing car could have been blown over with potentially fatal consequences.

Judge Andrew Patience QC told 28-year-old Marchant, of Pimpernel Way, Chatham: “Make no mistake about it, this was no schoolboy prank or joke.

“You were found to be responsible for causing an explosion on a public highway with that petrol-filled lilo mattress of such force it caused the metal fence to buckle.”

Marchant denied causing an explosion likely to endanger life or damage property but was convicted last month.

Yusuf Boztepe, owner of Walderslade Mini Market in Yarrow Road on the Weedswood estate, had been plagued by local youths since opening in 2007.

When he complained to the police, threats were made, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

On July 29 last year, Mr Boztepe was outside smoking when he noticed a group of youths on the corner with the junction of Pimpernel Way.

He saw Marchant carrying something and then place it by a fence, before running away with another man.

There was then an explosion with flames. Mr Boztepe was soon afterwards threatened that the same would happen to his shop.

Judge Patience said Marchant was convicted on clear evidence of an offence of the utmost gravity.
“As we saw on the CCTV, the car passed the seat of that explosion literally a second or two before that occurred,” he said.

“Had it been a second or two earlier that car could have been blown over, blown off course or blown into another vehicle with potentially fatal consequences.

“This was no isolated prank. I am satisfied it was done as part of a campaign to make the life of that Turkish shop proprietor a total misery.”

The judge added: “The purpose of the sentence I pass is to mark the gravity of this offence, punish you and to deter others from behaving in this way.”