Scooter fire arson leaves 15 Lyneham public homes vacant, $300k bill

Alexander Peter Brown, 36, pleaded guilty to arson after setting fire to a neighbour’s electric scooter in the basement car park of a 15-unit Lyneham public housing block on 5 December 2025, an ACT Supreme Court decision published on 28 October 2026 shows, The Canberra Times reported. The fire left the whole block uninhabitable, with $300,000 in estimated repairs. For builders and asset managers, it shows how one basement fire can take a full block offline for over a year.

Why it matters

CCTV from Brown’s unit showed him leaving at 8.53pm in a hooded jumper and face mask, carrying a lighter and a bottle of hand sanitiser. He returned two minutes later without the sanitiser. A triple-zero call about 9.03pm reported an active fire, and police arrived three minutes later to thick smoke pouring from the car park.

Acting Justice James Stewart found Brown set the fire to exact revenge on the scooter’s owner, who he believed had assaulted him earlier that day. Both men had made claims to police, and no charges were laid. Outside the building, a resident confronted Brown, who admitted lighting the fire and was then punched, fracturing his cheekbone. The judge treated that injury as extra-curial punishment.

The damage came from a single incident, not a structural or planning failure. Yet it has emptied an entire 15-unit block for 12 to 18 months of repairs.

The numbers

ACT Fire and Rescue and Housing ACT assessed the entire 15-unit complex as unsafe for occupancy after water, electrical and sewerage pipes in the basement melted and ruptured, the decision stated. All tenants were evacuated into emergency accommodation; some have since been permanently rehoused, while others remain in temporary housing. “This crime has had a deep and long-lasting effect on the victims,” Acting Justice Stewart said. The judge noted the weekly cost to ACT Housing of rehousing and providing temporary accommodation runs to about $4,500. As of March 2026 the building remained vacant awaiting repairs expected to take 12 to 18 months, with remediation costs estimated at $300,000, excluding separate structural engineering works. Brown was jailed for nine months and 22 days, backdated to time already served, so he was released immediately.

What’s next

The Lyneham block will stay offline for most of that 12-to-18-month repair window, adding to a public housing vacancy count already under scrutiny. The ACT Legislative Assembly ordered the ACT Government to disclose vacancy, maintenance and spending records within 60 days, after figures cited in that debate put 588 public homes vacant against 3,652 approved applicants still waiting, Region Canberra reported, as detailed in a separate 60-day disclosure order. Housing ACT has not detailed when remediation work at the Lyneham block will start, or how the $300,000 estimate, which excludes structural engineering, might shift once that separate scope is costed.