It was about 12.10am on March 13, 2014, at Weston's Brierly's Cafe.

Prosecutors will try to prove the man in the footage was 24-year-old Nick Parlov. Mr Parlov's co-accused in the arson is Leo Nicholas Eliadis, 47, who the court heard is the god son of an owner of a nearby cafe and who it's alleged planned the fire with the younger man.

Prosecutor Trent Hickey said the Crown case was circumstantial.

"There's no smoking gun," he told the jury on Tuesday.

"No one piece ... of evidence that proves their guilt."

Instead, the jury would hear evidence of telephone intercepts and conversations from a listening device in Mr Eliadis' car between the two accused that prosecutors suggest pointed to their guilt.

In one recorded conversation, Mr Parlov allegedly asks Mr Eliadis if he had any "paper" for him. Mr Hickey asked the jury to consider if this was a reference to payment for setting the cafe on fire.

Prosecutors will also try to link Mr Eliadis to the green car allegedly seen in surveillance videos driving from the scene on the night.

The court heard Brierly's Cafe had only changed hands a day before it was torched and the new owners had yet to insure the business.

The cafe's former owner, Robert Vilkaitis, was still the security contact and he was first to be called when the back screen door was pulled up before being doused in petrol and the alarm was set off.

He told the court on Tuesday it was the second fire at the cafe.

Questioned by Mr Parlov's defence barrister Richard Davies, Mr Vilkaitis said a chef had left on bad terms before he sold the cafe.

He said he'd fired the chef because he'd become unreliable. He said the chef had afterwards lashed out at him, and he believed a post on the chef's Facebook page about no longer working for that "f---wit" was about him. Mr Vilkaitis believed drugs and alcohol were involved.

He said he'd terminated a number of staff when the cafe was sold.

The trial continues before Chief Justice Helen Murrell.