{"id":1043187,"date":"2026-09-04T16:19:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:19:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043187\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T16:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T16:19:25","slug":"publican-jailed-for-setting-fire-to-snowy-mountainss-historical-globe-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1043187\/","title":{"rendered":"Publican jailed for setting fire to Snowy Mountains’s historical Globe Hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former publican has been sentenced to more than four years behind bars after deliberately burning down a Snowy Monaro pub in order to pocket the insurance payout.<\/p>\n

David Culican, 42, was found guilty of intentionally burning down the historical Globe Hotel in Bombala in June 2022.<\/p>\n

In Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Friday, Judge David Scully said Culican destroyed the 1857 building because “the business was in financial stress”.<\/p>\n

“The offender’s motivation was financial gain in potentially very significant amounts,” he told the court.<\/p>\n

Judge Scully said the pub’s insurance policy covered contents up to $480,000 and up to $640,000 in loss of trade, but it was “not clear what the offender would have reaped”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Culican has been sentenced to jail after lighting the fire at the Globe Hotel. (Supplied: Fire and Rescue NSW Station 230)<\/p>\n

The court heard that in the day before lighting the fire Culican made plans to rent a truck to transport “items of value” from the pub.<\/p>\n

“There was some rudimentary planning \u2026 but overall the offending was unsophisticated,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Judge Scully said.<\/p>\n

The court heard Culican was “clumsy” in his offending which involved him using a blowtorch to light the fire around 4am on June 25, 2022.<\/p>\n

CCTV footage from that night which showed Culican exiting the building while carrying a blowtorch and wearing a balaclava was played for the court during the trial.<\/p>\n

“The balaclava was a clumsy attempt to hide his appearance,” Judge Scully said.<\/p>\n

Culican was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months behind bars, with a non-parole period of 2 years and 9 months.<\/p>\n

\"generic<\/p>\n

Judge Scully found Culican has showed no remorse. (ABC News: Adriane Reardon)<\/p>\n

‘No evidence of remorse’<\/p>\n

Culican denied lighting the fire, but a jury found him guilty after a week-long trial and seven-hours of deliberations in the Queanbeyan District Court in May.<\/p>\n

Judge Scully said Culican, who watched the sentencing via audio visual link from custody at Junee Correctional Centre, “does not accept responsibility for this offending behaviour” and there was “no evidence of remorse”.<\/p>\n

The pub was destroyed by the blaze but there was no-one staying there at the time and no-one was injured.<\/p>\n

However, Judge Scully noted that both a civilian who was concerned about potential occupants in the building, and the firefighters who responded to the blaze, “put themselves at risk”.<\/p>\n

A conviction against Culican on a charge of possessing ammunition without authority was also recorded, but no sentence was imposed.<\/p>\n

Culican will be eligible for parole in February 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former publican has been sentenced to more than four years behind bars after deliberately burning down a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1043188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[8339,4740,417721,279029,417723,7337,50,3164,417722,12433],"class_list":["post-1043187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-arson","tag-australia","tag-bombala-globe-hotel","tag-fire-and-rescue","tag-heritage-pub","tag-insurance","tag-news","tag-pub","tag-publican","tag-trial"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117213685709451348","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1043188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}