A PUB landlord who was jailed after setting fire to a flat where his girlfriend and her children hid, has lost his bid for his sentence to be cut.

Philip Swarsbrick, aged 35, of Devonport Fold Road, Harwood, was sentenced to three years in prison last year after being convicted at Burnley Crown Court of arson, being reckless as to whether life was endangered and battery.

But his barrister John Woodward argued at London's Court of Appeal that the 35-year-old's sentence was "manifestly excessive." He claimed Swarsbrick was only trying to frighten fiancee Emma Kelly, who he has since married and refused to give evidence against him at his trial.

The three appeal court judges heard how, in April last year fiancee Emma Kelly was woken by Swarsbrick as she slept in the flat above the Fighting Cock pub, in Burnley, which he managed, and told to get out.

A barman working that night hid her and the two children, aged two and four, in another flat on the premises and when he refused to reveal their whereabouts Swarsbrick blocked an escape route by putting a fridge freezer in front of the door.

He then set fire to newspaper outside the bathroom where Ms Kelly and the children were hiding.

He stamped out the flames almost immediately but burning could still be smelled in the flat and when police arrived they found Ms Kelly screaming hysterically in fear of her life.

But Mr Justice Mitchell, sitting with Lord Justice Rose and Mr Justice Eady said: "This court regards Swarsbrick's offences as an unpleasant and unacceptable variation on the all too familiar theme of domestic violence."