A former volunteer firefighter will serve a two-year jail sentence in the community after sparking a fire during a total fire ban in Bega, ahead of the Black Summer bushfires.
Blake William Banner was attached to a Rural Fire Service brigade on the NSW far south coast when he was charged with lighting seven blazes in the Bega Valley between October and November 2019.
The 22-year-old pleaded not guilty to all charges and faced a seven-day, judge-only trial in the Bega District Court in 2020.
He was acquitted on six of the original charges but found guilty on count seven on the indictment in August.
Wearing a suit and tie, with his hair pulled back in a ponytail, Banner sat motionless as he appeared from the Bega courthouse on Thursday via audio-visual link for sentencing in the Sydney District Court.
He was accompanied in court by his parents, Jennifer Westaway and Steven Banner, who are serving police officers in the Bega Valley and had provided the court an alibi for their son for four of the original charges.
In August, Judge Robyn Tupman found Mr Banner guilty of lighting a fire on a dry riverbed in Bega on November 26, 2019.
The court heard police had placed a tracking device on Banner's vehicle the day before.
Judge Tupman referred to Banner's lengthy and "sometimes unfair" police interview on the day of his arrest, where he admitted to lighting the fire using a clear plastic water bottle as a magnifying glass, a technique he had seen online.
The court heard Mr Banner tried to stop the fire from spreading but panicked and left the scene before later returning with fellow RFS members to help extinguish the blaze.
Because of this, Judge Tupman found Banner intentionally lit the blaze during a total fire ban and had behaved recklessly by fleeing the scene and allowing it to potentially spread.
Judge Tupman also told the court the accused had a history of mental health problems, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD possibly caused by the death of his brother in a car crash when he was a child.
She told the court a psychologist had diagnosed him with borderline autism spectrum disorder earlier this year.
Judge Tupman told the court Banner had also been subject to a "quasi-custody" under his curfew, which banned him from leaving the house alone between 8pm and 6am.
She told the court he had shown contrition and remorse, and had told his psychologist he understood why people in the community were showing anger towards him.
Judge Tupman told the court his 34-month-long curfew was equal to 12 months in full-time custody.
The court heard Banner had been bullied at his workplace, where he is an apprentice mechanic, and had been the target of negative comments on social media.
Some friends had also "turned their back on him" since his arrest, the court heard.
Judge Tupman sentenced Banner to a two-year intensive corrections order, with the condition he seek psychological help for his mental health issues.
