A regular Wangaratta offender found himself back before court after he accidentally set fire and destroyed items in a neighbour’s garden shed. The 34-year-old appeared at Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on Monday pleading guilty to the arson which he said was an accident. The court heard on 29 December last year around 3:30pm police and FRV crews arrived at a Higgins Street address where smoke was visible. A fire which had spread across a fenceline had set alight a garden shed, destroying items and causing $1000 worth of damage. The accused was at the front yard and told officers he was burning plywood and other wooden items in a makeshift fire pit he had “watered down” before starting in the peak of the fire danger period. The court heard he left to have a cigarette and a drink for five minutes and the fire had spread to his neighbour’s shed. He said he was moving house and burning items he didn’t need. “Everyone else burns off around here,” he said in his explanation to police. The 34-year-old was also charged with stealing timber and electrical cables from a Greta Road building skip bin on 24 February. Defence counsel Nancy Battiato said her client, who lives with a disability, still lives at the same home and otherwise got along well with his neighbour. The 34-year-old was ordered to do 50 hours of community work when sentenced for multiple rural city thefts on 23 June, which Ms Battiato said he had yet to start. Magistrate Olivia Trumble placed the man on a 12-month good behaviour bond and urged him to start his community work.
