A teenaged boy has been charged after police surveilled him allegedly setting bush alight in the Lake Macquarie area last week.
\nStrike Force Kurla \u2013 which is a joint investigation team comprising officers from the Financial Crimes Squad\u2019s Arson Unit and Lake Macquarie Police District \u2013 has been investigating suspicious fires within the district.
\nInvestigators from NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) also assisted with the investigation.
\nPolice will allege in court that the 17-year-old boy lit a fire in bushland on Archery Road at Wakefield, about 12.30pm last Friday (4 January 2019).
\nThe youth was arrested during a vehicle stop on Rose Avenue, Glendale, about 8.15pm, and taken to Toronto Police Station, where he was charged with three counts of light fire and be reckless to its spread.
\nThe charges relate to fires at Weir Road, Teralba, on Thursday 22 November 2019; Current Avenue, Teralba, on Saturday 8 December 2018, and the fire at Wakefield last Friday.
\nThe teen, who is a volunteer for NSW RFS, has been granted strict conditional bail to appear at a children\u2019s court on Monday 4 February 2019.
\nInvestigations under Strike Force Kurla are continuing.
\nPolice are also reminding people that they could face penalties if found responsible for the lighting of bushfires \u2013 accidental or otherwise.
\nPenalties relating to bushfires under the NSW Crimes Act, the Rural Fires Act, and Rural Fires Regulation include:
\n– Damaging property with the intention of endangering life \u2013 up to 25 years imprisonment;
\n– Manslaughter \u2013 up to 25 years imprisonment;
\n– Starting a bushfire and being reckless as to its spread \u2013 up to 14 years imprisonment;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A teenaged boy has been charged after police surveilled him allegedly setting bush alight in the Lake Macquarie area last week. Strike Force Kurla \u2013 which is a joint investigation team comprising officers from the Financial Crimes Squad\u2019s Arson Unit and Lake Macquarie Police District \u2013 has been investigating suspicious fires within the district. Investigators … Continue reading “Teen charged over Lake Macquarie fires – Strike Force Kurla”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}