A 31-year-old man has been sentenced to five years in prison, after he deliberately set ablaze a Welshpool commercial building last March in a failed multimillon-dollar insurance scam.

Iman Rahimi pleaded guilty to the arson and fraud charges relating to the March blaze, but claimed “he was under the spell” of WA property tycoon Hossean Pourzand, owner of the former Bunnings headquarters, whom he regarded as a “mentor and father figure.”

The WA Supreme Court heard that Rahimi was urged by Pourzand, who also pleaded guilty to arson, to start the fire, so the latter could claim on the insurance to refurbish a vacant warehouse and factory on Pilbara street, The West Australian and ABC reported.

The pair met several times to devise a plan – two of which meetings were secretly recorded by Rahimi on his iPad. After significant planning, Rahimi set the plan into motion. Disguised, he went to the building, cut off the CCTV, and used citronella-soaked cords to set the factory ablaze.

The fire caused almost $20m in damages – which Pourzand then attempted to claim with his insurer.

Rahimi's lawyer, Sam Vandongen, told the court his client did not intend to destroy the building, but to only damage it enough so they could make an insurance claim of around $700,000.

But Justice Bruno Fiannaca said it was "arrogant and reckless" of Rahimi to think he could have controlled the fire, and that he had put at risk the lives of those who fight them, The West Australian reported.

Fiannaca also said that while he accepted that Rahimi had been “manipulated” by Pourzand to commit the crime, he was convinced that the 31-year-old's “driving ambition” was to “achieve wealth and status” in his community.

Rahimi will be eligible for parole after he's served three years in prison. Pourzand, meanwhile, is set to appear before the Supreme Court in July, the reports said.

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