A SCOTTISH arsonist who emigrated to Australia 36 years ago is facing deportation back to Scotland because he has never obtained citizenship of his adopted homeland.
Andrew McMahon, 48, has pleaded guilty to causing a fire that gutted the Albion Hotel in South Melbourne in October, 2015, causing more than £3 million worth of damage.
He was in court for sentencing yesterday and has been told he is facing time in jail, after which the authorities will decide on his deportation.
The builder was in charge of renovating the premises but the project was well behind and he had serious financial problems. He told police he lit a small fire to cause a little bit of damage so that he would be given time to catch up, but the fire spread and engulfed the hotel.
The case attracted considerable publicity in Australia because the hotel, which is due to reopen this year, is owned by Dale Swan, who was a champion Australian Rules footballer with the Collingwood club and features in Australia’s version of I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!
McMahon, from the Melbourne suburb of Berwick, emigrated with his family to Australia when he was 12. As a result of having permanent resident status but not full citizenship, Australian law stipulates that he should be deported to his native country after finishing his sentence.
A lawyer for the Scot told a court in Melbourne yesterday McMahon was “very much at risk of deportation at the [end] of his sentence.”
According to The Age newspaper, “psychologist Patrick Newton diagnosed McMahon as having a generalised anxiety disorder, saying he had feared he would lose his business and his relationships if he was forced to meet the project’s deadline.”
Newton added: “The fact that McMahon had failed to notice the CCTV cameras, which ultimately revealed he was the only one to leave and enter the building that morning, showed his behaviour was not akin to a criminal mastermind but the ham-fisted efforts of someone reacting irrationally and disproportionately to their worries.”
McMahon is married with two children, and legal experts say this may help to keep him in Australia rather than being sent back to Scotland after his release.
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