Guilty of burning house and trying to shift blame

FILE

A Rotorua woman has been found guilty of setting her house on fire and trying to pin the blame on someone else.

Holly Ruebe, 40, was yesterday found to have committed arson and to have attempted to pervert the course of justice.

Judge Phillip Cooper said the charges related to a house fire at the property Ruebe was residing at on Te Ngae Rd in the early hours of March 16.

She had initially blamed the fire on someone she held a grudge against and sent herself threatening text messages, and got someone else to do so too, to use against the targetted person.

Later she persuaded a family member to take the blame for lighting the fire, when she had done so herself, Judge Cooper said.

He said she was clearly "emotionally upset" at the time.

She was tried by a judge last month with Judge Cooper delivering that judge's decision yesterday.

When the guilty verdict was announced Ruebe broke down in tears, surrounded by almost a dozen friends and family. She was remanded on bail to appear for sentencing at the Hamilton District Court on March 3.