Jury set to ponder arson verdict

The jury will be out on Monday  in the trial of a Whangarei man charged with an arson attack at his former workplace.
Closing submissions by the Crown and defence lawyers into the case of Vincent Patrick James Leonard, 45, finished in the Whangarei District Court yesterday.
The former production manager at Pat Gavin Kitchens in central Whangarei is facing charges of arson, burglary and intentional damage.
Leonard called his neighbour, Peter Gardner,  as the only defence witness before closing submissions were made.
Mr Gardner said he had been cycling past Leonard's house and had stopped to help him load rubbish  on to a ute about 10.30am on November 12, 2006.  
He said Leonard  had not been wearing any shirt and  had been sweating profusely while clearing rubbish. Mr Gardner had not seen Leonard before 10.30am when the Crown alleged he travelled to the city, committed the offences and returned home before answering a message from his wife on his landline at 10.07am.
In her closing submission, Crown prosecutor Anna Patterson  said Leonard checked his message after returning from the city, changed his clothes and started working outside his home before being seen by Mr Gardner. She said phone records, surveillance footage of a ute  in Morningside and timing of the fire should leave the jury with no doubt  Leonard had committed the offences.
Ms Patterson said Leonard's claim in his police statement that he answered a call from his wife to their home landline about 8.30am or 8.45am could not be true because that call  had gone to  an answering machine.
Defence lawyer Wayne McKean  said there was no physical evidence before the court that his client committed the offences, except poor-quality surveillance footage. He said  the evidence was  uncertain and did not prove the Crown's case.
Mr McKean said Leonard left Pat Gavin Kitchens on good terms
Security arrangements at the company premises  had been loose because non-staff members such as cleaners and employees of United Carriers could enter the offices at night, he said.
Leonard did not have keys to  offices where fires were lit.
On allegations that Leonard entered the premises by deactivating  an alarm using the PIN number of financial controller Colleen Hawlker, Mr McKean said it was not logical for someone to remember another person's PIN number for six months.
Judge Duncan Harvey  will sum up on Monday morning before the jury retires to deliberate its verdict.