Abrahim El Tawil and Seckin Koc spared jail over Epping convenience store arson attacks

Two men who firebombed a convenience store, causing about $870,000 in damage, have both been handed a community correction order.

Seckin Koc, 22, leaving the County Court after he was spared jail time for an arson attack on a convenience store. Picture: Jason Edwards

Two men who firebombed a convenience store in Melbourne’s north causing nearly $1m in damage have been spared jail.

Abrahim El Tawil and Seckin Koc, both 22, fronted the County Court on Monday where they were handed a two-year community correction order over two separate arson attacks on I.R Convenience in Epping.

The court heard about a month before the first attack, an unidentified man entered the convenience store and spoke with the owner.

“You see that store? That’s the only place that sells tobacco around here,” the man said as he pointed to another business outside.

Weeks later El Tawil and Koc targeted the store after earlier breaking into and stealing eight boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates from a nearby cheesecake shop.

The men, who were accompanied by a third man, kicked in the front door of the High Street business before pouring accelerant through the entrance and lighting it about 1.10am on August 26, 2021.

Abrahim El-Tawil, 22, outside the County Court. Picture: Jason Edwards

But the blaze failed to take hold.

“We need to do it again,” El Tawil texted another man later that day.

“It didn’t work.”

The court heard El Tawil, from Thomastown, and Koc, from Wollert, returned the following night where they gained entry by kicking down the front door.

El Tawil lit an unknown item on fire and threw it onto a jerry can, causing an explosion, before the pair fled.

The fire engulfed the store and several neighbouring businesses, causing an estimated $870,000 in damage.

Prosecutors said El Tawil and Koc were “financially motivated” to carry out the attacks but there was no evidence linking them to the man who had visited weeks earlier.
Police later seized jerry cans and clothing that the men were wearing on the night of the attack.

Seckin Koc, 22, leaving the court on Monday. Picture: Jason Edwards

In her sentencing remarks, Judge Kellie Blair said the convenience store owner had spent years building up his business only to see it destroyed.

“(He) describes how he lost everything,” she said.

“He remains in constant fear, he remains fearful for his future.”

But she spared the men jail, noting they had spent more than eight months in custody on unrelated charges that were later dropped.

El Tawil and Koc, who pleaded guilty to burglary, theft and arson, were instead handed a two-year community correction order and ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid community work.

They refused to comment as they left court.