A SOUTHAMPTON woman, who started a fire in the flat of a pensioner friend she had been visiting, was remanded in custody for a psychiatric report.

The city crown court heard both Victoria Makey, 27, and 76-year-old Brian Dorothy needed treatment outside his sheltered accommodation home afterwards for the effects of smoke inhalation.

Prosecutor Anthony Bailey said before the fire started, Makey made ten hoax calls to the police in a 40-minute period, claiming there was someone at the door of the flat in Ironside Court in Hamtun Street, trying to get in.

She also made a call to the fire service saying a fire had started there.

Makey, who lived in the same road, denied arson reckless as to whether life would be endangered. In a statement, she said the blaze that wrecked curtains and caused smokelogging had been started by a cigarette Mr Dorothy had been smoking.

However, jurors heard a fire investigation found that was not the cause and it had been started deliberately.

Makey was remanded in custody until she is sentenced in November.