An attempt to destroy evidence of theft sparks a 1,000-hectare bushfire

An Australian court sentenced a man to prison for recklessly starting a 1,000-hectare bushfire while attempting to destroy evidence of fuel theft. In 2019, the man and an accomplice stole 200 litres of diesel fuel from a logging excavator near Hanging Rock.

Before the couple left the scene to go camping, some fuel left behind was ignited with a cigarette lighter. The fire destroyed 1,042 hectares of the Tamworth region, causing massive damage estimated to cost between $1.1 and $1.7 million.

‘To put this in perspective, about 10.42 square kilometres of land has been destroyed,’ the magistrate said. ‘ I accept the extent of the damage, but the only consequences should be for acts that could have been reasonably foreseen,’ said the man’s defence lawyer, Kimberley Norquay-Evans.

‘Any level of planning was only to destroy the evidence,’ Norquay-Evans added. Because the man was 17 years old when he committed larceny, the judge sentenced him to 12 months in prison, after which he will be eligible for parole in five months.