Rutherford: Police investigate suspicious fire at Empire Mechanical Solutions, owned by former Comanchero Jason Gualtieri
A former Comanchero bikie has had his new mechanic shop damaged in a suspicious fire – the latest drama following a list of attacks including a car being firebombed, a drive-by shooting and an arson attack on another business.
Newcastle
Don't miss out on the headlines from Newcastle. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Former Comanchero Jason Gualtieri either continues to be either a victim of targeted attacks or just has plain bad luck.
The man formally known as Jason Hure, who changed his identity to a surname matching Sopranos character Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri, will have to pick up the pieces again after a suspicious fire ripped through the office area of his brand new mechanics shop at Rutherford in the early hours of Tuesday.
The fire, which Gualtieri said had not been confirmed as deliberate, is the second business he has owned to become the victim of a blaze after his Jason’s Garage business in nearby Thornton was targeted in a confirmed arson attack almost a decade ago while he was still a bikie.
The Hunter man has also confirmed his house was shot up in a drive-by shooting at East Maitland last year – where a former bikie has admitted his role for a $5000 payment – and his prized Chrysler was damaged in a crude attempted carbombing two years before the shooting.
“I left that life long ago,” Gualtieri told this masthead on Tuesday.
“I have no ties to anybody in any illegal form and haven’t since 2018 [when he left the Comanchero].
“I am your normal everyday bloke who goes to work, goes home and tries to look after his family.”
Gualtieri said his new venture, Empire Mechanical Solutions, was only eight weeks old when fire crews rushed to the warehouse on Mustang Dr at Rutherford about 12.15am to discover flames had spread through the reception area of the workshop.
Firefighters from Maitland, East Maitland and Rutherford forced their way inside and spent an hour extinguishing the fire.
“Firefighters have handed control of the site to New South Wales Police amid suspicions about the cause of the fire,” Fire and Rescue NSW said in a statement.
Port Stephens-Hunter detectives have taken over the investigation into the cause of the fire and a specialist sniffer dog was brought in the search for clues.
Gualtieri said he had been told the fire was suspicious but not yet deemed deliberate, with specialists finding a “hotspot” where they believed the fire started.
He said he had noted a faulty power point in the office area had been troublesome but was unsure whether it was linked to the blaze.
But the mechanic said if the fire was deemed deliberate, he believed he knew who could have done it.
And he does not believe it is from his former days as a Comanchero.
He suspects it could also be linked to the drive-by shooting of his East Maitland home in January 2024 and the placement of two crude bombs under his car at a Rutherford address in 2022.
Gualtieri said the arson attack on his Thornton business in 2016, although still unsolved, was not linked to the other incidents and was probably associated with his time in the Comanchero.
That attack, where multiple custom motorcycles were destroyed as the fire ripped through two industrial units, occurred in June 2016 while Gualtieri still went by the name Jason Hure.
In 2022, two crude bombs failed to properly ignite under Gualtieri’s Chrysler car parked at a Rutherford address.
As revealed by this masthead at the time, specialist detectives from the Criminal Gangs Squad had taken over the investigation after the Comanchero links were confirmed.
It was suspected at the time that the incendiary bombs may have been lit moments before a loud explosion was heard about 8.30pm on October 27, 2022.
But despite the massive bang, only a small fire broke out at the back of the sedan and it was quickly extinguished.
Some 15 months later, former Finks bikie Billy Murphy sprayed Gualtieri’s family home in East Maitland on a contract worth $5000.
Murphy, who has pleaded guilty to the drive-by shooting and will be sentenced in April, was caught on phone tapes admitting to being paid to do the shooting “to send a message to someone”.
No one else has ever been charged over the shooting and Murphy, who remains in custody awaiting his sentence, is not alleged to have had anything to do with either fire or the firebombing of the Chrysler.
Gualtieri was reluctant to say he had been again targeted in the latest blaze – continually reiterating it had not been confirmed to be deliberate.
But he believed he knew who was responsible for ordering the shooting, where at least six shots were fired into the home, and the attempted carbombing.
“[If it does turn out that Tuesday’s blaze was deliberate] I think it was a very silly move,” Gualtieri said.
“We don’t know what happened or how it happened, but we have CCTV which covers the business and other businesses up and down that road have the same.”
Police said in a statement that a crime scene had been established and investigations into the cause of the fire were underway by Port Stephens-Hunter police.
Gualtieri said the front office was the only place damaged by the blaze, the workshop remained intact and the business would reopen as soon as engineers had given a tick of approval.
“Technically, the business can still run now,” he said.
Local cricket legend, 65, stuns by taking 10 wickets in an innings
If taking a seventh career hat-trick wasn’t a good enough day out for Newcastle City’s Brad O’Dell, the 65-year-old completed one of the rarest feats in the game. Here’s his incredible story.
Read more
‘Bad blood’: Neighbour mowed down over garden hose dispute
It was a petty dispute over an alleged stolen garden hose that escalated into a life-threatening situation when one neighbour mowed another down with his car. Here’s what happened in court.
Read more