Car rort up in flames

Truckie faces fine for torching lover’s vehicle in insurance fraud

A TRUCK driver who set his lover’s car on fire in the Tasmanian bush in a $23,000 insurance rort may have to repay the costs of the private investigator who helped nab him.

Malcolm Scott Pilgrim, 48, pleaded guilty only days before going to trial for unlawfully setting fire to property and attempting to dishonestly acquire a financial advantage after trying to defraud an insurance company in March 2018.

Pilgrim was living with his partner at the time, who had a car in poor condition after it had been run without oil.

The pair travelled to a location on Tasmania’s east coast, set fire to the car, then returned home and pretended the vehicle had been stolen.

But the insurance company became “suspicious”, Supreme Court of Tasmania Justice Alan Blow said while sentencing on Monday.

“Reading between the lines, it looks as though it was the sort of vehicle that is very hard to steal, and a locksmith subsequently said that it would have needed a key to move the vehicle,” he said.

“Your partner told the police that she had both the keys to the vehicle at the time.”

The insurance company engaged a private investigator, and police attached a listening device to Pilgrim’s car.

Justice Blow said even though the scam was Pilgrim’s girlfriend’s idea, he was a “full participant” in the fraud.

He said the pair no longer lived together.

“You now have work as a truck driver, which requires you to work on the mainland for months at a time,” Justice Blow said. “All things considered, I think it would be too harsh for me to impose a sentence that placed your employment at risk.”

Pilgrim was sentenced to six months jail, fully suspended, and ordered to pay compensation, yet to be assessed, to the insurance company.