A man accused of lighting fire to a Braddon tattoo parlour allegedly left his phone behind at the scene of the crime for police to find.
"The only thing that taskforce has on me is that I dropped my phone when I f---ing lit up the tattoo shop," the man was recorded saying on the phone two months after the alleged incident.
Mathew Longmore, 28, walked into the Galambany Circle Sentencing Court on Wednesday with the aid of crutches before being refused bail.
The Gordon man, who is on parole and in custody, has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges, including arson, intentional wounding, aggravated robbery and dangerous driving.
The most serious of his alleged offences relates to a fire at the Ethereal Tattoo Parlour on Elouera Street that took place in the early hours of June 19.
Firefighters told police without the businesses' activated sprinklers, a 13.5kg gas bottle found in the shop could have exploded.
"Residents in the eight-storey building above the commercial premises may have died or sustained serious injuries," police documents state.
Longmore is accused of stealing a Toyota Celica and deliberately lighting the fire.
When authorities arrived at the tattoo shop later that morning, they found its front door ajar and a glass panel smashed, a five-litre plastic fuel container, and the gas bottle.
Firefighters also found a mobile phone whose number belonged to Longmore.
The alleged offender's DNA was found on the device.
Police recorded a number of conversations had by Longmore allegedly discussing the fire in the following weeks.
"I'll just say I lost my phone," he was recorded saying to one woman.
"I f---ing dropped the c--- I was getting out of the car," he said days later.
The same woman was recorded telling Longmore: "Say you've got a lot of crackhead enemies out there. Your phone was stolen and you're probably being stitched up."
Police documents state the tattoo parlour was forced to close for two weeks for repairs, which cost its owners about $3000.
Longmore was already before the court for the unrelated charge of intentional wounding when he allegedly committed the arson.
He therefore needed to prove there were special or exceptional circumstances allowing his bail application to be heard.
That circumstance, Aboriginal Legal Service lawyer Emilia Currey said at her client's instruction, was Longmore not receiving proper medical care for the broken leg he suffered in a car accident in June.
Ms Currey also noted the alleged offender could face significant delays in getting to a trial.
Special magistrate Anthony Hopkins said he could not find these reasons to be special or exceptional, especially without any medical evidence to support Longmore's claims.
"It's quite a strong Crown case against you," Dr Hopkins said.
The special magistrate ultimately refused to hear the bail application without any submissions from prosecutor Marcus Dyason and wished Longmore "good luck" in his recovery.
The alleged offender is set to face court again in November.
