Benjamin Charles Rosenow, 32, of Whitton, was sentenced in the District Court last week having pleaded guilty to four charges of intentionally cause fire and be reckless as to its spread.

The charges related to seven grass fires that Rosenow deliberately lit along Whitton Darlington Point Road at Whitton between December 29, 2020 and January 17, 2021.

Rosenow has been a member of RFS since March 2009 and on four occasions he was called out as a volunteer to fight against fires that he had ignited in dry grass with a lighter.

Rosenow lit four of those fires in one day - January 11 last year - while travelling in a southerly direction along Whitton Darlington Point Road.

After lighting the fourth fire, Rosenow turned around and drove home on the same road and past the other three fires that were still burning.

Rosenow was arrested when Murrumbidgee Police District detectives executed a search warrant at his property on January 22 last year and admitted to his crimes at Griffith Police Station.

District Court Judge Sean Grant stated that Rosenow's offending was "an ongoing course of serious criminality"

"The risk of a major blaze in the bushfire season was a matter of which he must have been aware, having regard to his [RFS volunteer] experience" Judge Grant stated.

However, Judge Grant stated that Rosenow's case was different to those of other offenders who had deliberately lit fires that damaged significant bushland and injured firefighters. "This offending involves small grass fires, which were all extinguished within a few hours [with] no significant destruction of property as a result of the offending," Judge Grant stated.

"This offending was still a waste of valuable resources at a time when there would have been a lot of pressure."

A psychiatrist found Rosenow had been "experiencing traumatic flashbacks and poor sleep through nightmares" after fighting the Black Summer bushfires and was consuming 20 standard alcoholic drinks per night.

Judge Grant accepted that Rosenow was a "hard-working, respectful, and courteous" farm labour contractor with no prior criminal history and "excellent prospects of rehabilitation".

"[Rosenow] acknowledged how fearful people in the community might have been and the negative effect his offending behaviour may have had on his fellow firefighters," Judge Grant stated.

Rosenow was sentenced to a maximum of three years and six months imprisonment and he will be eligible for parole in May next year.

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