Paul Anthony Bolger: appeal denied after Bolger found guilty of deliberate damage to his own home, caught on his own CCTV

A jury convicted Paul Anthony Bolger in 2018 of dishonestly damaging his Johnston Street house and the contents five years prior, falsely reporting the fire as accidental and making an insurance claim to gain a financial advantage.

Bolger was sentenced to three years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 18 months in April 2018.

His appeal against his convictions on the grounds the verdict was "unreasonable" and the jury should have considered other options for why he was seen moving around the house in a "crouched position", other than trying to hide from CCTV cameras, was denied in the NSW Supreme Court of Criminal Appeal on Friday.

The court heard Bolger was cooking a barbecue for himself at about 10:30pm at the North Tamworth home on March 16, 2013, when a fire caused damage to parts of the property.

When police arrived, Bolger was trying to extinguish the fire with a garden hose. He told them he had candles in one of the bedrooms to hide an odour his girlfriend had complained about when the flames "must have caught on something".

Bolger offered up his CCTV, which showed him moving around the house shortly before the fire started in a "crouched position".

The Crown argued Bolger was trying to hide from the cameras and was unaware a reflected image of him moving around was recorded by one of the cameras pointed at the glass front door.

A carpenter who went to the house after the first fire to inspect the damage spoke to Bolger, who told him his brother had ripped him off for $400,000 and left him with very little in his account.

The builder told the court Bolger also said "the place is insured for $850,000" and that he "shouldn't have worried about calling the fire brigade because the house will never be the same", and that he thought it was bizarre Bolger told him this given the pair were strangers.

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A month later a second fire destroyed the house completely, but Bolger was found not guilty on all three counts related to the second fire.

Bolger later told police that the reason he was crouching in the CCTV footage was because he heard a noise outside and didn't want to be seen.

The court heard he was a "paranoid man" who had mannequins placed near his windows to give the impression someone was home.

NSW Supreme Court Justices Ian Harrison, Christine Adamson and Geoffrey Bellew found it was open to the jury beyond reasonable doubt to be satisfied Bolger was guilty on both counts and dismissed his appeal.

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