Jury accept mystery man caused cottage fire

A businessman accused of setting fire to his mother’s Grade II listed cottage to claim on insurance has been cleared by an Old Bailey jury. Suranja Thilekaratne, 39, claimed a mystery person started the blaze while he was topping up the gas meter at the £600,000 19th Century two-bedroom house in Wembley, northwest London. Four four petrol can nozzles were later found in one of Thilekaratne’s cars but he explained were for filling garden equipment and had ‘accumulated.’ Thilekaratne was…