Three men plotted arson on properties linked to the Prime Minister, court hears

Three men were offered payment to set fire to a car and two houses linked to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer by a Russian-speaking contact named “El Money”, a court heard.

Ukrainians Roman Lavrynovych, 22, Petro Pochynok, 35, and Romanian Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, are charged over a series of fires in north London last spring.

Opening their Old Bailey trial on Wednesday, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said: “Three fires in the same area within five days would be pretty unusual.

“However, three fires all involving property linked to the same person were beyond a coincidence.

“The Rav4 car had once belonged to the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.

“The house in Ellington Road was managed by a company of which the Prime Minister had once been director and shareholder, and the house in Countess Road still belonged to the Prime Minister, and was occupied by his sister-in-law.

“The evidence demonstrated that there was here, no coincidence.

“Rather, the vehicle and the two properties in question had been targeted, and the acts of arson at these locations had been planned and directed, with those involved promised payment for their participation.”

The defendants have denied conspiracy to damage property by fire between April 1 and May 13 last year.

Lavrynovych is also charged with damaging two properties by fire with intent to endanger life or being reckless as to life was endangered on May 11 and 12 last year.

The first fire was in the early hours of May 8, when the Toyota Rav4 was set alight on Countess Road in Kentish town, the court heard.

On May 11, a fire was allegedly started at the front door of a house converted into flats in Islington, north London.

The following day, there was another fire at the Kentish Town home where Sir Keir lived before he became Prime Minister and moved into Downing Street.

Mr Atkinson said: “Lavrynovych had been offered payment to set the fires by a contact using the name or pseudonym ‘El Money’.

“‘El Money’ communicated in Russian, in contrast to the Ukrainian otherwise used by the defendants.

Jurors at the Old Bailey were told they did not need to decide “what motivated” the defendants to carry out the arson on properties linked to the Prime Minister.

“It does not matter whether they knew that the property they were targeting was connected to the Prime Minister or whether that formed part of their motivation,” said Mr Atkinson.

Lavrynovych, of Lewisham, south-east London, Carpiuc, from Romford, east London, and Pochynok, of Islington, north London, have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

The trial before Mr Justice Garnham is expected to continue until the end of May.