Teenager set fire to buildings for revenge

Timaru teenage arsonist Nathan John Hodge has been jailed for four years for fires that caused damage totalling $212,000.

Judge Robert Kerr said in the Christchurch District Court that Hodge's offending was "stupidity on your part in trying to exact revenge".

Hodge, 19, admitted torching the warehouse of a business that had fired him and attacking Roncalli College, where he felt he had been "put upon by one of the teachers".