Former licensee jailed for insurance scam
The former licensee of an historic hotel in Western Australia damaged by fire has been jailed for being behind an arson plot.
The court heard that the former licensee Graeme Cooper hatched a plot to set fire to the 125 year old Premier Hotel in Albany, causing $1.5 million in damages in May 2016.
Four men had already been jailed over the scheme back in July. For his part, Cooper had claimed he had been bashed by two men, as shown on CCTV, showing them pushing him down a corridor before the building was set alight.
The four had received sentences of between three and six years for their part in the scheme.
There were four people in the hotel at the time of the fire.
Cooper had claimed he was innocent right up to the first day of his eight day trial in the Supreme Court. He then changed his plea to guilty.
Cooper, 36, hatched the arson plot after he took over the lease of the hotel and ran into financial difficulties.
The insurance scam would have resulted in him getting millions of dollars.
Using a friend, he engaged two men to carry out the attack. A third was engaged as a driver.
The court he had provided the two with lighter and fluids. He then notified the hotel’s residents once the building was alight.
Justice Stephen Hall said it was a particularly bad example of arson.
Cooper was facing a life sentence.
Justice Hall said Cooper should receive a harsher sentence than his accomplices as he was the main beneficiary and instigator of the scam.
He took Cooper’s lack of a criminal record into account and acknowledged he had got the residents out of the hotel safely.
But he pointed out that Cooper was the one that exposed them to the risk in the first place.
The fire had not only caused significant damage to the hotel on the main street of Albany. It had also posed a risk to surrounding properties.
And despite Cooper’s lack of a criminal record, the judge said Cooper’s breaking the law had gone beyond the fire as he had made false statements to the police and his insurance broker.
For each count of criminal damage by fire, creating false belief and attempting to gain benefit by fraud, Cooper was sentenced to a total of 10 years imprisonment.
He said deterrence was important for arson offences as these were difficult to investigate and prosecute.
by Leon Gettler, January 18th 2017
