A sentencing hearing in the arson/insurance fraud conviction of Raj Ingle, former owner of the Spice of India restaurant located at Market St. and McClurg Rd., has been set for Mon., July 20 in the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
      Ingle, who operates Jewels and More in the Southern Park Mall, entered a guilty plea in May to felony charges of arson and insurance fraud.
      The Spice of India restaurant burned down Oct. 8, 2013. Investigators say a deal made at a Beaver Township restaurant between Ingle and two men to torch the Spice of India was captured on a surveillance tape; and a cell phone registered to one of those two men pinged off a telephone pole near the restaurant at the time of the fire.
      Ingle was indicted Feb. 20, 2014 on the arson and fraud charges. He finally entered a plea to the charges more than 15 months later, after 11 pre-trial hearings and six continuances.
      The fire caused an estimated $225,000 in damages and the restaurant was totally destroyed. Ingle filed an insurance claim on the restaurant soon after it was destroyed, but never collected the money, an investigator told The Boardman News.
      In a plea agreement with the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office, Ingle agreed the maximum penalties he faces in 36 months in jail and a $10,000 fine on the arson charge, and a year in jail and a $2500 fine on the fraud count.
      His plea agreement says prison sentences are “not presumed necessary or mandatory.”
      The plea agreement also says Ingle could be eligible for the imposition of a community control sanction of three years, and his decision to plead guilty “places me completely, and without reservation of any kind, upon the mercy of the court.”
      Three other person have also entered guilty pleas related to the Spice of India fire.