A millionaire property developer who filmed a model of the Grenfell Tower burning on a bonfire has received a suspended prison sentence, after a magistrate described it as being grossly offensive “to almost everybody who has an ounce of decency”.

Paul Bussetti, 49, from Croydon in south London, made the recording during a Guy Fawkes party in November 2018, and shared it in two WhatsApp groups.

In the clip, which went viral online, a reveller could be heard commenting: “That’s what happens when you don’t pay the rent.”

The model also featured cut-out figures including those of children, which Bussetti claimed were intended to represent him and his friends.

A total of 72 people died when the 24-storey block went up in flames in June 2017.

Bussetti was previously found not guilty of a malicious communications offence after a two-day trial, but prosecutors appealed the verdict and the acquittal was quashed by the High Court.

Appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday for a retrial, Bussetti pleaded guilty to one count of sending grossly offensive material via a public communications network.

Sentencing him to 10 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, Paul Goldspring, the chief magistrate, said he had been horrified when he had viewed the video.

‘Abhorrent’

He told Bussetti: “It was disgusting, it was disrespectful, it was abhorrent and it was – by the nature of the charge – grossly offensive.

“I suspect it was offensive to almost everybody who has an ounce of decency about them.”

Following the hearing, a spokesman for The Grenfell United bereaved and survivor families group expressed relief at the outcome.

The spokesman said: “Bussetti’s actions were despicable. They caused us more suffering when we were trying to heal.”