A series of arson attacks on property linked to Keir Starmer was masterminded by a Russian-speaking contact using the pseudonym “El Money”, a court has heard.
Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Petro Pochynok, 35, both from Ukraine, and Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, a Romanian national, sat with their heads bent towards interpreters as Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, opened the trial over the arson attacks that took place in May last year.
“Three fires in the same area within five days would be pretty unusual,” Atkinson told the jury. “However, three fires all involving property linked to the same person were beyond a coincidence.”
Over five days last May, police were called to a fire at a house in north London connected to Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live and a blaze involving a car that also once belonged to the prime minister.
Lavrynovych faces three counts of arson with intent to endanger life or being reckless as to whether life would be endangered. Pochynok and Carpiuc are also accused of conspiracy to commit arson. The men deny the charges.
It is alleged the three men with links to Ukraine were offered payment to set fire to a car and two houses linked to Starmer by a Russian-speaking contact named El Money – translated from the Ukrainian word “Hroshi”.
On 8 May, a Toyota RAV4, once owned by Starmer before he sold it to a neighbour, was set ablaze. Another fire took place on 11 May at the front door of a property in Islington, north London, which Starmer had previously managed.
A third fire was set in the early hours of 12 May outside the Kentish Town home where Starmer lived before he moved into Downing Street, and where his sister-in-law was now living.
The prosecutor said videos and images recovered by the police showed a Toyota RAV4, which once belonged to the prime minister, on fire, as well as one of the addresses linked to Starmer being set alight.
He also said Telegram messages recovered by the police between Lavrynovych and El Money showed he had been recruited, instructed and promised with payment in cryptocurrency for the fires. Pochynok had been recruited by Carpiuc to help Lavrynovych with the first fire, the court heard, while Carpiuc’s role involved planning and receiving payment.
“The evidence demonstrated that there was here, no coincidence,” said Atkinson. “Rather, the vehicle and the two properties in question had been targeted, and the acts of arson at these locations had been planned and directed, with those involved promised payment for their participation.”
The court heard more than 320 messages dating back to September 2024 were recovered between Lavrynovych and El Money, who communicated in Russian in contrast to the Ukrainian used by the defendants.
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Lavrynovych buying white spirit in south-east London two days before the Toyota was set on fire, the court heard. Each of the properties was allegedly set alight by Lavrynovych in the “dead of night, when the occupants of the addresses would inevitably have been asleep”, jurors were told.
“The prosecution’s case is that when he did so he must have intended to endanger – to risk – the lives of the people living inside those houses,” said Atkinson.
He added: “Why else would you set fire to the front door, blocking the residents’ escape?”
Jurors were told it was “no part of your considerations” to decide who El Money was and “what reason he might have had” to coordinate the defendants’ actions. Atkinson also said the jury did not need to decide “what motivated” the defendants to carry out the arson attacks.
“It does not matter whether they knew that the property they were targeting was connected to the prime minister or whether that formed part of their motivation,” said Atkinson.
After the attacks, El Money had encouraged Lavrynovych to leave London, the court heard. “Look, you attacked the home of a very high-ranking person in Britain. I’ll send you money, you need to leave the city,” said the message read in court.
“If the police detain you, secretly write the word ‘geranium’ and I’ll send a lawyer to you, I’ll give you money for a week and a new phone. We won’t be in touch for a week.”
The trial is expected to continue until the end of May.
