Fake fire claim lands man in jail

A cash-strapped Perth repairman who set fire to his business to claim more than $130,000 from insurance has been jailed.

Robert Brian Tomlinson used timers to set off a heat gun so his Bayswater unit would go up in flames while no one was there, but his insurer became suspicious and refused to meet his claim.

Tomlinson was sentenced to three years and six months jail in the Supreme Court of Western Australia this week for his "planned, premeditated and persistent" offending, and will have to spend at least 21 months behind bars before he is eligible for parole.