By Tony Stickley for NZPA

Wellington, Dec 25 NZPA - Two cash-strapped restaurant owners have been jailed for four years for fire-bombing their business to claim the insurance.

The massive blast narrowly missed a man walking in the street.

Kurdish immigrants Antonio Banderas Carlos, 31, and Khalida Hasan Husen, 29, had been found guilty by a jury of arson and attempting to obtain a pecuniary advantage by making an insurance claim.

Passing sentence in the High Court at Auckland, Justice Judith Potter said that it was lucky that the "dramatic explosion" at the Cafe Hasan Baba in Cook St, Howick at 3am on Sunday February 17 last year did not kill or injure a passing English visitor.

Wayne Bateman was only five metres past the front of the caf© when the blast blew the door and windows of the restaurant across the road and into a nearby cemetery. Wood, glass, tables and chairs were hurled many metres into the street.

The fireball lifted the roof of the kitchen and blew apart concrete block walls.

Experts estimated that at least 11 litres of petrol was poured in strategic areas around the premises -- then left to evaporate to form an extremely explosive vapour -- to explode with such force.

Justice Potter said it was good fortune that Mr Bateman escaped any harm.

"Had he proceeded along Cook Street a few seconds later, he may well have been injured or killed."

The judge said that at the time the couple, who have a three-year-old daughter, were "significantly in debt".

Their bank had ordered a mortgagee sale on two residential properties in Husen's name which had mortgages worth more than $1.2 million. Their $25,000 business overdraft had been exceeded and Husen's credit card had gone over its limit and had been cancelled.

Justice Potter said that after the explosion the pair tried to claim on their insurance for lost property and loss of business.

A loss adjuster put the figure at $435,000 but the insurance company refused to pay out until after the police investigation.

Evidence was given that during the evening the couple had told customers they had to pay in cash, claiming that the eftpos machine was broken.

One of the waitresses saw Carlos putting the takings in his pocket.

The Crown said it was pre-meditation at the highest end of the scale -- the till was left open making it appear that a significant amount of cash, as well as an expensive Persian rug, had been stolen by burglars who then set off the explosion.

Prosecutors said that the couple had tried to explain the explosion by inventing fictitious gang members who they said had previously come to the restaurant to bother them.

There was no evidence of any break-in.

The judge said that, while covered by their insurance, the landlords suffered financial loss as did a dental practice in the building.

She said that there were no mitigating features; the pair continued to maintain their innocence and there was no remorse.

However, she took into account their previous good character and efforts to establish themselves in a new country.

While they might have expected the premises to be vacant at the time, they could not have known that lives of members of the public would not have been put at risk by the "dangerous manner in which they undertook the destruction of the restaurant property".