Gino Scutti, of Lake Albert, yesterday learned he would not be going to jail for charges of damage property by fire and publishing false misleading material to obtain financial advantage after he burned down the Carrathool Family Hotel on September 22, 2010. 

Just hours before lighting the fire he learned his wife, Sharon, had terminal cancer. 

She has since passed away. 

Wagga Local Court magistrate Michael Antrum said his decision had been changed from a prison sentence given Scutti’s frame of mind in the wake of the terrible news. 

“The facts disclose the defendant found out his wife was terminally ill on the day of the fire,” Mr Antrum said. 

“It is an extraordinary case of the straw which broke the camel’s back.”

Prior to the fire and issues with his wife’s health, Scutti had been stressed with the news his retirement investment in the pub had come unstuck. 

Scutti purchased the hotel with his wife in 1996 for $240,000, but changes to the Gaming Machines Act in 2002 resulted in the pub’s licensees selling the poker machines from under the couple, cutting its value to just $50,000. 

An intensive corrections order assessment was completed to see if Scutti was eligible to serve a sentence in the community as opposed to imprisonment. 

He was deemed ineligible. 

Mr Antrum said that after long consideration weighing up sentencing options he believed a suspended prison sentence was appropriate given the gravity of the charge and Scutti’s personal situation. 

“I believe the stress and feeling of despair were the catalyst for the fire,” Mr Antrum said. 

“That human response, while criminal, saves you from prison today, Mr Scutti.”

Mr Antrum said a number of other matters including Scutti’s mental health, lack of criminal history, his unlikeliness to re-offend and his age had also been factors in his decision. 

With other cases of damaging property by fire calling for a prison sentence, Mr Antrum stressed the seriousness of the crime, saying despite his personal situation Scutti’s actions were “despicable”, showing little regard for the Carrathool community and the lives of others. 

Scutti will have a two-year suspended prison sentence hanging over his head for the charge of damage property by fire. 

He was also placed on a Section 9 good behaviour bond for 12 months with supervision by Probation and Parole for publishing false and misleading material to obtain financial advantage.