Court hears impacts of amusement hire business owner James Balcombe’s arson attacks on rivals

A pre-sentencing hearing for James Balcombe, the former owner of a Melbourne-based amusement hire business, has heard how he orchestrated a firebombing campaign against rival business.

Having pleaded guilty last October to 11 counts of conspiracy to commit arson in relation to attacks on other party hire businesses between December 2016 and March 2017, the 57-year-old faced Victoria’s County Court on Wednesday.

The court heard of “the devastating impacts” felt by the victims of the party hire business owner who employed arsonists to attack rival party hire and jumping castle businesses.

Balcombe, who has served 608 days of pre-sentence detention, appeared in the Melbourne County Court on Wednesday, via video link from prison.

Crown prosecutor, Nicholas Batten, told the Court Balcombe owned a party hire and jumping castle business, Awesome Party Hire, when he hired two men - former employee Peter Wally Smith and Craig Anderson - to “wipe out” competitors at Tullamarine, Werribee, Hallam, Warragul and Keysborough.

Batten said Balcombe was motivated by greed, wanted to eliminate his business rivals and to defraud his insurer, stating “he wanted to be number one on Google and he wanted to face less competition from others.”

Smith was involved in two of the fires while Anderson was involved in all but one, in which the offender could not be identified. These men also involved Trevor Ransom - the driver in the first four fires.

Balcombe paid $2000 for each “job”.

While the majority of the fires – lit by way of smashing windows and throwing in firebombs – did not catch, the offending resulted in significant damage and costs for numerous businesses and two major fires.

Tullamarine business Xtreme Party Hire was targeted twice, while CRP Tarp’s at Werribee were targeted three times in total.

A&A Jumping Castles, located at Hoppers Crossing, was targeted in a fourth arson attempt in the early hours of 12th January 2017.

The two-storey premises, at which amusement equipment including go-karts and a mechanical bull, in addition to 110 jumping castles were being stored, was gutted by flames.

One of the business’ trucks was also destroyed, while an adjoining business was damaged.

The Court heard the cost of the damage to the uninsured business was about $1.5 million.

In a victim impact statement read to the Court, the business owners described the financial, mental and emotional impacts of the attack by somebody they had never met.

They described how their 18 years of work and livelihoods were destroyed by the attack, and while they initially tried to rebuild on a smaller scale, they were ultimately forced to make the decision to “close the books” after 23 years.

The statement read “the shock, horror and disbelief will be forever etched in our minds - a sickening and tragic event we can never unsee.

The Court was told another business owner, Andrew Saliba, was targeted repeatedly, which eventually led to him keeping fire extinguishers in the bedrooms of his family home

After receiving a call from a police officer’s wife, who ran a party hire business, in which he was warned that businesses in their industry were being targeted, Balcombe decided to “hit (his) own factory” in Kangaroo Ground to deflect suspicion from himself.

This fire was lit on 6th March and the fire burnt his large shed, containing jumping castles and party hire equipment, to the ground.

The Court heard he filed an insurance claim afterwards.

Balcombe and the co-offenders were all arrested in March 2017 and subsequently charged.

The Court heard Balcombe’s whereabouts were unknown until August 2020, when the Australian Federal Police notified Victoria Police he was located in Perth, living under a false identity, amid an investigation into the manufacturing of fraudulent postal stamps for which he was later sentenced.

Balcombe pleaded guilty to stamp and weapon offences in Western Australia before being extradited to Victoria to face arson charges and a false document charge, after he used a fake medical certificate to get out of a Court appearance.

Balcombe’s defence barrister, Simon Kenny, told the Court the offending was motivated by “an obsession”.

He said his client, who founded his business in 2006, learned about jumping castles through his brother’s neighbour - one of his later victims and became “fixated” on building his business.

Kenny went on to state “his drive was to become the most successful businessman in this field of jumping castle hire, in doing so he completely lost perspective.

“He wanted to put his competitors out of business.”

While Balcombe pleaded guilty to charges against him last year, the accused arsonists all pleaded guilty to the offending in 2017.

The trio were all sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment.

Balcombe was remanded in custody to face sentencing at a later date.

Images: Awesome Party Hire's sumo suit attraction (top), James Balcombe (middle, credit: Victoria Police) and Balcombe being arrested in Perth by the Australian Federal Police (below, credit: Australian Federal Police).