A BRIERLEY Hill businessman who orchestrated a hate campaign against his former girlfriend that ended with her car being firebombed has been warned he is facing a long spell behind bars.

Robert McNaughton became bitterly resentful when Sharron McCann ended their seven-year relationship and he recruited two men to carry out a string of frightening attacks on her Halesowen home, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Windows in the Hopwood Close property were shattered, car windows smashed and red paint thrown over vehicles and against the front door.

Miss McCann's Vauxhall Corsa was then firebombed reducing the vehicle to a metal frame with flames spreading to the front door but people inside the house were luckily able to escape unhurt.

McNaughton maintained he never paid anyone to do damage or cause harm and he stressed he had played no part in the attacks that left his former partner terrified.

But a seven-man five-woman jury found him guilty on a charge of conspiracy to cause criminal damage which he had denied.

The panel retired to consider the evidence for nearly four hours before returning their unanimous verdict against McNaughton, who was a director of Refuse Derived Fuel Ltd (RDF) in Brierley Hill.

The 51-year-old had served a six-month prison sentence for failing to clear a mammoth pile of rubbish off Moor Street that reached 42-feet at its height and caused misery for people living nearby.

He also had a number of other previous convictions for offences involving violence including harassment and battery against his ex-wife when they were going through their divorce - Peter Arnold, prosecuting, said.

Judge Simon Ward told McNaughton it was clear he was a "devious and complex" man and he remanded him in custody until February 17 for sentence.

He said McNaughton, of Tenter Drive, Halesowen, would be given a jail sentence for what he described as a very serious offence.

Before the start of McNaughton's trial Matthew Barker, aged 42, and 20-year-old Joden Smith, both from Leicester, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit criminal damage and they will also be sentenced on February 17.

The trial was told the bitter McNaughton recruited Barker who in turn brought in Smith and they started carrying out the frightening attacks on the home of Miss McCann.

She had broken off her relationship with McNaughton because she thought he had been unfaithful but he maintained he had ended it because of her problems with prescription drugs, alcohol and money.

McNaughton said the relationship had deteriorated but the prosecution said he was driven by resentment to "get back at her" because he took it very badly.

Jeremy Hayes, defending, unsuccessfully applied for bail for McNaughton after his conviction.

He said McNaughton, who was now unemployed, had a family and a home although it was accepted he would almost certainly be going to prison.

The judge said the prosecution would have to consider applying for a restraining order to prevent the possibility of future offending against Miss McCann.