Arsonist struck hospitals to raid the tills Jailing Ashcroft at Canterbury Crown Court today, Judge James O'Mahony said he will serve eight years behind bars and be subject to an extended licence for four years. Prosecutor Martin Yale said Ashcroft's reign began when he was released from prison last summer after being sentenced to 12 months for burglary. On July 14, just weeks after his release, he burgled Rotherham District General Hospital in South Yorkshire. The following day, he set fire to a quilt in a housekeeping storage room at the Hilton Hotel in Sheffield, triggering the automatic sprinkler system, which flooded the area. As water cascaded through the ceiling and guests were evacuated, Ashcroft stole £132 from a till behind the bar. Seven rooms suffered water damage. It cost more than £1,200 to restore the sprinkler system and guests who had their stay interrupted had to be compensated, resulting in a total loss to the hotel of more than £3,000. Days later, on July 20, Ashcroft's probation officer issued a recall notice after he failed to abide by the conditions of his release. But the following day, he targeted the Midland Hotel in Manchester, torching a cleaner's trolley, which resulted in another evacuation. With the coast clear, he dipped his hand in a till in the beauty parlour before escaping through fire doors - but was captured on CCTV, which later helped identify him. Ashcroft's campaign was interrupted when he was arrested for shoplifting in Blackburn, Lancashire, on July 26 and returned to custody before being released just under four weeks later. He then travelled south to the Sussex coast, and on August 26 set fire to a quilt at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton, prompting its evacuation. He went on to steal £75 from a till, Mr Yale said. The following day, Ashcroft visited the Sealife Centre visitor attraction in Brighton where another fire was set and he stole £50 from a till. Later the same day, he set fire to clothes at Brighton's Dome and, following the evacuation, stole £82 from the cafe. Also that day, Mr Yale said Ashcroft travelled to the Hilton Hotel at Gatwick Airport where a quilt was set alight but nothing was stolen. However, hundreds of pounds of damage was caused. The following day, August 28, Ashcroft torched cotton balls in a cupboard at Crawley Hospital in West Sussex, forcing its evacuation, and took more than £200 from the cafe till. A day later, another hospital was targeted - the Medway Maritime in Gillingham, Kent, which has more than 600 beds and at the time had more than 1,500 staff on duty. Mr Yale said a housekeeping store cupboard was set alight. Some patients and staff were evacuated, and the cost of the damage was said to have run to up to £15,000. Then on August 30, Ashcroft targeted a third hospital - the Kent and Canterbury, when a fire was suspected to have been set among clothes in the chaplain's office. Five out of six wards were occupied by dozens of patients and staff at the time. Later, staff noticed that around £25 had been stolen from the restaurant. However, the cost to the fire brigade was more than £2,000. With the situation "spiralling out of control," Ashcroft surrendered himself by telephoning police in Ramsgate the following day, saying he believed he had been recalled to prison. One of the arresting officers recognised him from a picture circulated by a senior officer relating to the arsons and burglaries, and he was arrested. While under caution, he asked: "What about the others?" Mr Yale said: "Ashcroft said that he committed the crimes to fund his drug addiction which cost about £250 a day. He said that he travelled around by train and set the fires close to smoke detectors so that they would be detected quickly. Ashcroft said he had no home and had either been sleeping rough or stayed with friends. Mr Yale told the court: "In relation to the offences at the hospitals, Ashcroft said he just wanted the money and didn't think about the consequences." Defence counsel Peter Forbes told the court that Ashcroft did not suffer from any mental illness but had a "fundamental personality disorder." "What seems to be behind this, and is his only real explanation, is this defendant's entrenched drug addiction," said Mr Forbes. Judge O'Mahony said it was hard to "understand the evil" of putting lives at risk for relatively small sums of cash, amounting to just under £25 in one incident. In mitigation, Mr Forbes said Ashcroft targeted premises where there were smoke detectors and sprinklers present, and that he did not use petrol to accelerate the flames. Mr Forbes went on: "This man plainly has been wracked by drug addiction for many years. He has taken heroin and crack cocaine since 18 or 19, and they have plainly been a dominant force in his life. His descent into drugs and crime followed the death of both his parents when he was young, leading him to be raised in care. Mr Forbes added: "To his credit, he handed himself in and he realised that the situation was spiralling out of control." Judge O'Mahony told Ashcroft: "You are a man seriously addicted to heroin and crack cocaine. You have a huge number of previous convictions over the years, many of them for burglary. The real gravity of what you did was this: in order to steal some trifling amounts of money because you wanted drugs, you set fire to three hospitals, having taken great care to get into the premises and identify them, work out where to set fire, cause evacuations, and thus enabling yourself to steal. You gave no thought or understanding to other people in there. It's argued... that the fires were started in places where there were sprinklers and fire alarms. The judge said that "mercifully" no-one was killed but he added that "things could easily have gone wrong" and there was "real danger" to people in the premises he targeted, including cancer patients. He went on: "It must have frightened vulnerable and sick people, not to mention, of course, the staff. It also caused huge losses of money to honest taxpayers to what is a national institution - the NHS. Judge O'Mahony said Ashcroft's actions were "selfish, dangerous and wicked" and that an "eyebrow-raising aspect" of one case was that he stole just under £25 yet caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage. He said: "In cold-blooded calculation you started fires with devastating results, not from any obsession with fire or pyromania but because you wanted drugs." Ashcroft was deemed to be a "dangerous" man at high risk of re-offending based on reckless, premeditated behaviour, the judge told the court.