Romy Caroline Petherick and Renee Alexandra Adam Googles instructions how to set car on fire

A mum who set alight a former mate’s car was caught when her search engine history showed she had searched “best way to light a car on fire” the day of the blaze.

A MUM who set alight a former mate’s car was caught when her Google history showed she had searched “best way to light a car on fire” the day of the blaze.

A day later, Romy Caroline Petherick also Googled “how to get house arrest instead of jail time” and “arson in australia (sic) jail”.

Petherick’s accomplice, Renee Alexandra Adam, also sought medical help for a burnt knee and thigh the day of the blaze.

The pair pleaded guilty in the Southport District Court on Thursday to arson.

On July 14 last year Petherick made the following Google searches:

● Suoer chewp (sic) auto jerry cans;

● How to set a car on fire;

● Setting a car on fire charges;

● Most flammable liquid

● Best way to light a car on fire

● How long does it take for a car to burn

● How to make sure a car fully burn (sic)

That night just after nine o’clock Petherick and Adam – wearing black and in Adam’s silver Jeep – went to the BP service station in Coomera and purchased two red jerry cans.

They then went to Freedom Fuels at Hope Island to fill the containers.

About 11pm, Petherick and Adam went to a Regency Place, Mudgeeraba home and set fire to a yellow Suzuki parked in the driveway.

The car belonged to a former friend of Petherick who she had a falling out with in 2016.

The pair had had a number of altercations in which the police had been involved.

Following the fire Adam went to the emergency department at the Gold Coast University Hospital with burns to her knee and thigh.

Petherick was spotted buying flowers.

The next morning Petherick searched on Google:

● Punishment for lighting a car on fire;

● Webjet;

● How to get house arrest instead of jail time;

● Arson in australia (sic) jail;

● Qld (sic) arson jail laws.

When police searched Adam’s home they found the flowers Petherick had purchased for her.

Judge Geraldine Dann sentenced Petherick to two-and-a-half years’ prison with immediate parole. Adam was sentenced to 18 months’ prison, wholly suspended.

“You can’t just go about burning people’s cars in their driveways in residential streets whatever the provocation might be,” Judge Dann said.

“Vigilante justice never works.

“It makes our society less safe when people behave the way they do on television shows.

“That is not how we conduct our lives.”

Judge Dann described the arson as “premeditated and amateurish”.

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