A LANDLORD lost the plot when his tenants broke his house rules.

Wayne Robinson let them stay at his log cabin home on Dartmoor but his rules were ‘cats come first; my word goes and don’t bring the police to my front door’.

But when relations soured Robinson doused the tenants with barbecue lighter fuel and threatened to set them on fire with a flare he was holding.

He then pointed his loaded speargun at the two men and woman during the incident outside his home in the village of Lustleigh.

Exeter Crown Court heard 54-year-old Robinson was only stopped when one of the group grabbed a garden rock and threw it at his head, felling him.

Robinson suffered a fractured skull and landed up in hospital as the trio ran off.

Prosecutor Andrew MacFarlane said the trio – who had been staying at his home – had broken his golden rules.

The court heard Olivia Cunningham had been lodging at Robinson’s home for two years until things soured because he didn’t get on with her boyfriend.

Miss Cunningham and the two men – Jamie Pratt and Stuart James – decided to move their property out of the cabin but Robinson rang police to say he was being burgled.

Robinson claimed the police told him to ‘look after yourself’ and ‘the best form of defence is attack’ – and Robinson later said: ‘That’s what I did.’

Mr MacFarlane said Robinson grabbed the speargun and loaded it with a sharp bolt and ‘held it in a threatening way’ and the three victims felt their ‘lives were in danger’ and tried to flee.

He said Robinson removed the safety catch and pointed the gun at Miss Cunningham’s head with his finger on the trigger and told her: ‘I am going to f***ing kill you.’

The court heard Robinson had already doused them with the fuel which soaked them and threatened to light it with a flare.

The judge heard he held up the flare but it was a spent one and would not have lit the fuel – but the scared trio would not have known that.

Defence barrister Joss Ticehurst said the harpoon was not in working order and had been kept in a filled water butt.

He said it was ‘used as a threat to induce fear’ but accepted the three people did not know it was not working.

Mr Ticehurst said it was ‘a frightening’ incident but said his client got his ‘just desserts’ when the rock was thrown and broke his skull.

He said he felt the trio had broken his house rules and claimed they were taking property from his home – when in fact they were removing their own things.

Mr Ticehurst said Robinson was a man ‘who keeps himself to himself’ but is helpful and pleasant in the local community. He has lived in the cabin since 1976.

He said he overreacted to the situation.

Recorder Phillip Mott QC said: ‘What you did was to terrify three people in a horrific way. You squirted barbecue lighter fuel over them and then held up a flare.’

He said it was a spent flare but it induced fear in them before turning the speargun on them.

He said it was a ‘very unusual case’ but a serious affray because of the weapons used to threaten them and used to cause harm.

Robinson admitted affray in October and was jailed for 20 months, suspended for two years.

He was given a 20-day rehab order, put on a three-month curfew and given a five-year restraining order banning him from any contact with his victims.