An old man, driven to despair after his sister evicted him from the property he had given her, set himself and the house on fire in an act of revenge, a court heard. Sixty-four-year-old sailor Chan On had given his sister the deed to his multi-million dollar property in Tseung Kwan O village on the condition she look after their ageing mother. But the elder sister, Chan Yuk-lan, 60, reneged on her promise and would not move in with the mother, the District Court heard. 'The eldest sister admitted she only returned to the village to visit the mother occasionally,' said Peter Hui, defending. 'He gave his sister $240,000 to build a new house on the property, and each month he gave her half his salary as money for his mother.' Chan had supported the family for nearly 50 years. He retired in 1990, and lived with his mother for two years. During this time he gave his remaining two properties to his other sister and his ex-wife who redeveloped them and later sold them. But when the mother died, the elder sister got a court order and turfed out Chan in November 1995, forcing him to sleep on the streets, prosecutor Ronald Mayne, told the court. The defence said: 'Neither his sister nor wife would have him stay with them. The ones he had trusted didn't care for him any more. All he wanted to do at the time was die.' On the morning of December 11, last year he broke into the village house that his sister had left empty after she had evicted him, the court heard. Drunk and depressed he spread paint thinner across the house and set it - and himself - alight. 'He climbed back into the house with a bottle of brandy and he drank three-quarters of it,' Mr Hui said. 'He wanted to die in the place he still considered his.' The court saw police photographs of the torched house. While the walls on either side of the shrine to his mother were scorched black from the fire, the photograph of his dead mother and entire alter had been untouched by the blaze. Chan, who admitted to arson, spent the next two months in hospital getting treatment for his badly burned arms and legs, but none of his family visited him, the court heard. With only $1,110 a month in public assistance, Chan was forced to sleep in an abandoned village schoolhouse he had attended 50 years earlier as a boy. 'I would describe the offence as a tragedy,' Mr Hui said. 'The anger, shame and frustration in the defendant was understandable. 'The motives for setting the fire was a gesture to declare his suffering. He did not intend to cause criminal damage.' Judge Peter Longley ordered new psychiatric assessments on Chan who will be held in custody until April 23 for sentencing.