The owner of trucks at a lorry park called Nil Desperandum was left in despair after one of them was deliberately set on fire and another was badly damaged.

Peter Taylor and another intruder broke into the park at Blue Bell Hill between Maidstone and Rochester more than three years ago and torched a Hino grab lorry worth £35,000.

The blaze also damaged a Seddon Atkinson line painter containing combustible material which the owner said would have caused “the greatest firework display over Maidstone this county had ever seen” had it caught alight.

Taylor, of Thomas Place, Maidstone, denied arson but was convicted by a jury yesterday.

The 61-year-old with serious health problems was jailed for three years and three months after a judge said the offence called for a deterrent sentence.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the lorries had been parked at Nil Desperandum - Latin for “never despair” - in Maidstone Road overnight for security reasons on February 1 2014.

Taylor and the other unidentified man were caught on CCTV breaking into the compound. They approached the two lorries and one then burst into flames.

Prosecutor Walton Hornsby said fuel from the tank of the Seddon was used to set fire to the grab vehicle. Taylor’s DNA was found on the petrol cap.

“We don’t know precisely the reason why this attack took place,” said Mr Hornsby. “It seems clear however that it wasn’t a random attack of vandalism and it was premeditated.”

Taylor could not explain how his DNA came to be on the petrol cap but he denied being resonsible.

After conviction, Mr Hornsby said Taylor had a long history of offending dating back to the 1970s. He had served prison sentences, including six years in June 2009 for conspiracy to steal cables from railways.

Michael Latham, defending, said Taylor was in bad health, suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. He asked for an exceptional course to be taken to impose a suspended sentence.

Judge Jeremy Carey said Taylor had been convicted on the clearest evidence.

People had been dependent on the lorry that was written off to earn a living, he said, and there was loss of business.