Care home bosses and a gardener have been fined after a bed was set alight in a bizarre back garden bonfire.

Thick black smoke billowed over houses in Jesmond, Newcastle, when a care home’s gardener set fire to a bed base, cushions and a chest of drawers in an apparent controlled fire at Abbeyfield House on Castle Farm Mews.

Pottery, metal, tin-foil, wiring, electrical flex, cloth and glass tubing with potentially toxic parts were also found to have been flung on the flames when Newcastle City Council officers paid a visit to the home six days later.

National care charity the Abbeyfield Society was fined £1600 following a hearing at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court on Friday, August 15 for disposing of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment and potential harm to human health at the home on October 4 2013.

They were also asked to pay £284 and a £160 victim surcharge.

The home’s gardener Simon Renton, 42, of Cochrane Terrace, Newcastle, who carried out the fire was ordered to pay a £270 fine, a £27 victim surcharge and £282 costs.

Both the care organisation and Mr Renton had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge however changed their pleas to guilty at the hearing.

Two charges of submitting controlled waste to a listed operation without an environmental permit was dismissed by the court.

Abbeyfield’s residential care home at Castle Farm Mews has 24 rooms for people aged over 65-years-old.

A neighbour alerted Newcastle City Council to the fire after visiting a relative at their home at the nearby Castle Farm Road and seeing thick smoke in the air.

An Abbeyfield Society spokesperson, said: “We are concerned to hear about this situation as we expect all our staff and volunteers to adhere to correct waste disposal techniques across all our properties.

“Abbeyfield prides itself on its community links and takes very seriously anything that could jeopardise our valuable work in supporting and caring for older people.”

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