Australasian Biker News
Bikie tenant 'provided cover for arson'
Published 25 March 2008 17:41
Updated 26 March 2008 06:31
Did an outlaw bikie’s criminal activities provide “a convenient cover”
for a Kulangoor homeowner to set fire to his house to claim insurance
money?
That is what a jury must decide during a trial in the Maroochydore
District Court this week.
Anthony Stanley Kettlewell, 47, has pleaded not guilty to arson and
attempted fraud over the fire at his Mount Combe Road, north of Nambour,
on April 22 last year.
Crown barrister Sandra Cuppina told the jury during her opening address
that a former outlaw motorcycle gang member had occupied Mr Kettlewell’s
house.
The man, who cannot be identified since a court suppression order was
issued, was one of the Bandidos motorcycle gang members who have pleaded
guilty to burning down a Rebels’ clubhouse in Brisbane in March last
year.
The convictions arose after the man dobbed in his fellow Bandidos
members in a bid to break free from the gang.
The suspicious house fire at Kulangoor was initially linked to the
escalating war between the rival outlaw motorcycle gangs.
But Ms Cuppina said the Crown intended to prove that the tenant’s
criminal activities “actually provided a convenient cover” for Mr
Kettlewell’s alleged plan.
She said other theories included the Rebels gang burning down the house
as retribution, or the Bandidos getting back at their former gang member
for “giving police information about them”.
But Ms Cuppina told the jury that Mr Kettlewell had increased his
insurance cover from $390,000 to $440,000 in December 2006 and had
altered his insurance conditions from owner-occupier to rental-landlord
just 12 days before the fire.
She said the former outlaw bikie would claim Mr Kettlewell had asked him
to burn down the house and said he would benefit from the insurance
payout.
Ms Cuppina said Mr Kettlewell claimed he had gone for a run at
Mooloolaba when the fire started.
She said he was seen on security footage in Mooloolaba at 5.38pm buying
a can of drink but asked the jury to note his absence from two hours of
footage showing the path he claimed he ran on.
Ms Cuppina said the drive to Yandina took just over 20 minutes and the
fire was noticed between 6.20 and 6.30pm.
She said a man who lived in a neighbouring street recorded the licence
plate number of Mr Kettlewell’s car just minutes after noticing the fire
Christopher Mellish, who reported the fire to triple-0, said he pulled
over after seeing flames on the home’s balcony.
“The fire looked like it was outside the house … like someone had thrown
newspaper into a Weber barbecue,” he said.
“I reversed back … I did see a fire then that I knew was going to burn
the house.”
Mr Mellish said about five minutes later he “immediately went on guard”
because a car’s movement attracted his attention.
“A car came from my side quite rapidly with the headlights on and as it
went past me I caught the number plate,” he said.
“I turned to find a pen in the car and I couldn’t so I scraped it in the
gravel on the side of the road with my finger.”
A Nambour firefighter told the court that police were called after the
station received a 000 call from a former policeman who told them “this
is a bikie retaliation” shortly after the fire began.
The former outlaw gang member might take the stand today.