A detective has described how the lights of a car captured by a surveillance camera in the dark of night led police to suspects in a cafe arson.
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There were few leads to begin with in the deliberately lit fire at Brierly's Cafe in Weston just past midnight on March 13, 2014, a court heard on Wednesday.
There were no fingerprints - the offender had apparently used gloves to bend up the back fly screen door before dousing the cafe in petrol.
And while the cafe's surveillance camera had filmed the business going up in flames in dramatic footage, the video betrayed no identifying information of the hooded person behind the alleged crime.
However, more surveillance footage from a nearby plant nursery showed a car pull up about the same time, and a figure come and go from the car.
Police began to suspect the figure was the arsonist - as its clothes appeared to match that seen in the cafe's surveillance footage of the alleged crime.
Detective acting Sergeant Callum Hughes told a jury on Wednesday he and his colleagues had analysed what they could see of the car, including its lights, and searched the internet for a model of car that matched the pattern on the one in the video. They narrowed it down to a 1998 - 2001 Honda CRV.
Officers suspected, after watching further colour surveillance footage sourced from the nearby car wash, that the car they were interested in was green.
They searched for all the unregistered and registered models of cars that met that description in the ACT at that time. The search turned up 83 green Honda CRVs, and officers started contacting each owner.
Meanwhile, acting Sergeant Hughes said he took the names of the Honda owners and searched the police indices, a database police keep of interactions with members of the public and their details.
The court heard this database included those who turned in lost wallets, or made noise complaints.
A man named Leo Nicholas Eliadis turned up in the search, acting Sergeant Hughes told the court. He had identified himself as the godson of a cafe owner in Weston when he went to police with his godfather about a civil matter some years before.
"That made you look more closely at Mr Eliadis?" the prosecutor Trent Hickey asked the officer.
"Yes, that's correct," he replied.
Mr Eliadis, 47, is now on trial in the ACT Supreme Court accused of involvement in the Brierly's Cafe arson, with a co-accused, 24-year-old Nick Parlov.
Prosecutors will try to prove Mr Parlov was the hooded figure in surveillance video of the alleged arson, and that Mr Eliadis planned it with the younger man.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Acting Sergeant Hughes told the court police had subsequently searched Mr Eliadis' house. They had also seized his green Honda and used it to recreate the scene at Weston one night in front of the same surveillance camera and compared the two tapes.
Video of the recreation was played to the jury.
Police also listened in on Mr Eliadis' phone calls, and installed a listening device in his car, the court heard.
The trial continues.
