A LONG-SERVING fireman has been jailed for two years for deliberately starting two fires that left landowners facing a total bill of hundred of thousands of pounds.

David MacKay, 40, helped colleagues fight both fires he started, one of which it was feared would engulf a village of 450 inhabitants and took two days to extinguish.

For battling one of the fires MacKay was paid double the hourly rate because it was a public holiday but denied under questioning that the call-out cash was what prompted him to torch the forests and moorland.

Former long-term girlfriend Sheila Henderson, 31, a carer, told police she saw his white van near the scene of one of the fires shortly before it started.

MacKay, a veteran of 21 years' service, was a crew manager and joint second-in-command of the 10-strong band of part-time retained fire fighters in the village of Strontian, Argyll, who are paid a fixed annual amount plus extra for call-outs.

The full-time Scottish Water technician for 22 years, who drove a white van for his work, was previously found guilty by a jury at Fort William Sheriff Court of wilfully starting a fire on the 8000 acre Carnoch Estate on March 27 2013.

He was also found guilty of wilfully starting a blaze a few days later, on April 1, in nearby Glen Tarbert, the fires destroying hundreds of acres of specially planted native trees. The earlier fire threatened Strontian itself and was two miles wide.

MacKay, of Dal Nan Each, Strontian, was caught because his Scottish Water van was equipped with a tracker system and police were able to place the van at the correct time and place when and where the fires started.

Carnoch Estate owner Steven Fox, 58, also told how from high on a hillside he spotted a white van leaving a layby in Glen Tarbert a few minutes before smoke and flames were seen near the layby.

Sentence had been deferred until yesterday for a social work background report on the bachelor and an estimate of the cost of the fires.

Fiscal Ruairidh McAlister told Sheriff Mungo Bovey the cost to Forestry Commission-owned woodland was £42,000.

He handed papers to the sheriff with the Carnoch Estate figure which Mr Fox said was £750,000.

Rosalyn McTaggart, defending, said her client still maintained his innocence over the fire raising. Due to the break-down of a long-term relationship he was living with his supportive parents and trying to sell his house. Never before had he been in trouble with the police or courts.

As a result of the court case he had lost his jobs with both Scottish Water and the fire service.

The solicitor handed the sheriff three character references on MacKay telling how he had raised money for charity.

She claimed there was "an outpouring of local community support" for MacKay.

Jailing him for two years Sheriff Bovey said: "I bear in mind that you are a first offender and of a previous unblemished character.

"But these two events costing hundreds of thousands of pounds carried an inherent risk to others.

"The situation is aggravated by the fact you were paid to fight the fires."

Afterwards a spokesman for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said: "Our retained fire fighters do an excellent job in protecting our communities.

"Mr MacKay was with the fire service for more than 20 years and all the good work he has done in that time has been ruined by his actions and his reputation has been destroyed.

"He has let himself, the service and his colleagues down and has been dismissed."