Man Who Set Five Fires in Dunedin Sentenced to Prison

Andrew Magnus Healey will spend the next four and a half years in prison after a judge determined he remains a risk to the community.

The timeline of the offenses began on the night of November 14, 2025. Healey, aged 49, arrived in his car on Montpellier Street in Dunedin with two accomplices. He was not the driver. The group entered the derelict Glamis Hospital under cover of darkness. One accomplice held a lighter and acted as a lookout while Healey used accelerant to ignite discarded items. The building caught fire quickly. The trio fled without alerting neighbors and watched the flames from a nearby park. Fire crews eventually extinguished the blaze. Afterward, the group drove to Tomahawk Road in Ocean Grove, where Healey set fire to a portable toilet. The incident was captured on CCTV.

A couple of days later, the group targeted a building on Harrow Street. Healey instigated the fire again. The damage was severe enough that demolition became the likely outcome. He did not inform nearby residents of the danger. Following this, the group drove to 23 Lees Street, a single-story house that was unoccupied. Three neighboring properties were occupied at the time. The driver waited in the vehicle while Healey and his accomplice threw three Molotov cocktails at the building. One bounced off and did not ignite. The second went through a front window and caught fire immediately. The men climbed into the car, and the driver took them to Kensington Oval to watch the fire. Fire crews assessed the structural damage as substantial and likely required full demolition. On the morning of the Lees Street fire, the group drove to a carpark near the Otago Pistol Club. Healey and his accomplice walked into a wooded area. Healey used accelerant, a rolled-up newspaper wrapped in black duct tape, to set several trees and vegetation on fire. A passing driver called the fire service, and crews extinguished the flames before the trio drove away. This departure was also recorded on CCTV.

Healey was arrested at his home on November 19, 2025, after police executed a search warrant. He appeared before Judge David Robinson in the Dunedin District Court on Wednesday to receive his sentence. The court was told of a troubled background, including a previous event where his brother was badly burnt in a fire. Judge Robinson acknowledged that seeing the effects of fire should have alerted Healey to its destructive power. The judge granted a 5% discount for this background but noted a history of multiple offenses and a lack of explanation for the current acts.

The judge sentenced Healey to four years and six months of imprisonment. The minimum non-parole period is set at two years and three months. Judge Robinson stated that Healey had an entrenched history of offending and showed little signs of the motivation required for behavioral change. Although Healey wrote a letter indicating remorse, the judge found the letter entirely inconsistent with his behavior during the pre-sentence report, where he minimized his culpability.

The court heard that the man posed a risk to the community. He was found guilty of two charges of arson involving danger to life and three charges of arson involving property. The sentence reflects the severity of the five fires set across Dunedin under cover of darkness.