Jayden Alan Brehm in court for blowing up stolen car

Footage of an apprentice plumber and teenager in bushland near Gympie shows the teen being blown off his feet after dousing a stolen car in petrol and setting it on fire.

An apprentice plumber caught on camera urging a teenager to blow up a stolen car has been jailed for his “stupid” behaviour.

Mobile phone footage played for Gympie District Court on Thursday showed 22-year-old Jayden Alan Brehm urging his young co-offender to douse a stolen and stripped LandCruiser in petrol early in the June morning in 2022.

They were in isolated bushland at Mothar Mountain near Gympie.

Brehm can be heard laughing as he films the teen from inside a nearby car.

The footage showed the youth trying to set the LandCruiser on fire by throwing a lit piece of paper through the driver’s door.

He then leaves the frame for a moment, before returning with a jerry can of fuel.

As he looks at the LandCruiser while holding the can, Brehm can be heard asking “is there heaps of fuel in there”, “is it going to burn” and “throw the whole can in”.

Jayden Alan Brehm, 22, leaves Gympie District Court on Thursday, October 12, 2023, after pleading guilty to arson.

The teen then does exactly that, splashing the fuel through the vehicle’s open back door.

A brief pause follows, and then the car explodes in flames, knocking the teen off his feet.

The video then cuts off.

Police seized the footage from the teen’s phone when they searched his address not long after the vehicle was torched.

Brehm was arrested by police three days after the LandCruiser was torched.

The court was told the tyres, subwoofer and roll cage had been stripped from the LandCruiser before it was torched.

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Footage played in Gympie District Court showed Jayden Alan Brehm laughing and encouraging a teenage co-offender to throw a jerry can of fuel into a LandCruiser they were trying to torch in bushland.

Its owner was forced to pay a $1600 insurance excess on the vehicle.

The court heard Brehm had started using methamphetamine when he was 14 years old, and had left school after Year 9 to start a plumbing apprenticeship.

His criminal history included jail time for domestic violence crimes including choking, assault occasioning bodily harm and attempting to pervert the course of justice in 2021.

Brehm was on probation for those offences when he torched the LandCruiser.

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Judge Nathan Jarro accepted Brehm’s guilty plea to a charge of arson, calling his behaviour “foolish” and “stupid”.

“He shouldn’t have been egging (his co-offender) on,” Judge Jarro said, adding that torching the car in bushland risked starting a bushfire.

Brehm was not accused of stealing the car, or charged with any other offences in relation to this incident.

He sentenced Brehm to three years’ jail, with 482 days already declared.

Brehm was paroled from Thursday but the Judge said it was “academic” as Brehm was remanded in custody on other charges.

Originally published as Jayden Alan Brehm in court for blowing up stolen car