The prosecution says a man accused of plotting to torch his wife's car for the insurance money promised to buy a Wii for the man who lit the fire.
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But John Robert Raadts's barrister has suggested his client's accuser, Tony Andrew Streets, implicated his former friend to avoid a tougher sentence for his role in the blaze.
Raadts is on trial in the ACT Supreme Court accused of procuring Streets to damage his wife's car by arson and attempting to dishonestly obtain financial advantage - specifically an insurance payout - from insurer AAMI.
The 30-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The court heard yesterday the fire, which destroyed the Honda CRV, also left the once-fast friendship between the two men scorched.
Streets told the jury he was convicted in late 2009 of arson and aiding and abetting Raadts to try and swindle the insurer in relation to the July 2008 fire.
The salesman was sentenced to 12 months on the arson charge and six months on the fraud offence, fully suspended, and the jury yesterday heard Streets was invited to assist the Crown in the case against Raadts in exchange for a lesser sentence.
Streets told the court he and Raadts discussed the accused man's financial woes before the car fire, and Raadts repeatedly asked him to help him burn the car to claim the insurance money.
But when pressed by prosecutor Margaret Hunter, the witness was unable to remember details of the conversations.
Streets said he eventually agreed to torch the Honda, and the pair agreed to carry out the plot on a night when Raadts was in Sydney at a State of Origin match and his partner was in Melbourne.
The plan, the witness said, was to break into the vehicle at the Amaroo school where Raadts was working and set it alight.
''I tried smashing the window with the hammer, it bounced back several times, tried smashing the back window, tried smashing every window - it wouldn't smash,'' Streets said.
Streets said he eventually forced his way in with a screwdriver and coat hanger, doused the interior with petrol and set the Honda ablaze.
But as he and his girlfriend at the time were fleeing the scene they were spotted by a taxi, who Streets believed took down their number plate and called police.
Streets handed himself in and was interviewed at length by police, but did not tell them about Raadts's alleged role in the fire.
The court heard he instead told them he went there with the intention of playing a practical joke and letting down the tyres.
Streets said he told Raadts, ''I would take the blame for it because I had got caught.''
The trial before Justice Hilary Penfold continues today.