Steven Anthony Kerswell, Alexander Restrepo plead guilty to Troy Candy arson attack
An upcoming arson trial involving two men charged with setting fire to a business owned by local influencer Troy Candy has been vacated after the pair indicated made a surprise move in court.
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Two men who torched a business owned by Gold Coast influencer Troy Candy have pleaded guilty to arson.
Moorooka man Alexander Restrepo, 52, and Eagleby man Steven Anthony Kerswell, 50, appeared in Southport District Court on Tuesday via audiovisual link from custody.
They both entered guilty pleas to a single-count indictment charging them with arson on June 28, 2023, at an industrial unit at Arundel.
The pair had originally planned to contest the charge, with a trial listed in the Southport District Court next month.
The trial listing was vacated as a result of the guilty pleas.
The pair will be sentenced on July 30.
No facts of the offending were read onto the public record at this stage of proceedings, but police previously said the offence occurred at an address at Distribution Court, Arundel.
The early-morning attack, which gutted a unit housing Candy’s (a.k.a. Troy Williams) luxury car-wrapping business, Eye Candy Motorsports, was captured on CCTV, but it took nearly three months for investigating officers to make arrests.
The CCTV depicted two men, one in hi-vis, the other in black clothing, cutting a hole in the roof of the unit housing Candy’s business before pouring accelerant inside and setting it alight.
The arson attack on Candy’s business was preceded four days earlier by a separate fiery attack on a neighbouring business, The Bento Buzz (the defendants are not charged in relation to this matter).
Police at the time said they believed the attacks to be targeted at Candy, but that the first arsonist set the wrong business alight.
Candy was not aware why he was targeted.
“Obviously it was some kind of payback or to cause some kind of financial detriment. His business is ruined, it’s closed. It was uninsured,” Detective Acting Inspector Mark Proctor said previously.
“... He (Troy Candy) has been very co-operative with police. He has provided statements and he has done basically everything we’ve asked of him.
“But he’s in the dark as well.”
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Originally published as Steven Anthony Kerswell, Alexander Restrepo plead guilty to Troy Candy arson attack
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