The in-laws of a tycoon who attacked a member of the Lyons crime family were left shaken after a car was torched outside their front door.
David and Pauline Aitken’s home caught fire after the Nissan Note went up in flames.
Fire crews tackled the blaze in Balvenie Street, Coatbridge, at about midnight last Friday.
The Aitkens’ son-in-law is Mario Rea, whose mansion in Airdrie – where he lives with his wife Laura and their two young kids – has been targeted twice in the last year.
The 40-year-old and his twin brother Carlo were convicted in 2013 of attacking Eddie Lyons Jr at a birthday party in 2011.
Rea, who is serving a seven-year ban from being a company director over unexplained money transfers, was also convicted of an assault on Lyons associate Liam Boyle at a cinema in 2012.
No one was injured in last Friday’s arson attack but police said the Aitkens, both 62, had a lucky escape.
Detective Sergeant Clare Cassidy said: “If they hadn’t heard the noise outside and called the emergency services so quickly, this could have been so much worse.
“While we don’t think this was a random attack, we are still trying to find out why this house and car was targeted.”
Witnesses saw three or four men, all wearing dark clothing, making off from the scene in the quiet residential area.
Yesterday, labourers were repairing the front door and windows of the house.
The Record approached a woman at the property, believed to be Pauline, but she refused to comment.
In 2012, Rea was issued with a threat to life notice by police, amid fears that gangsters linked to the Real IRA were targeting him.
