Pair to front court again over house destruction

Makayla Muscat

APenrith man and Cranebrook woman accused of destroying a property continue to await their fate after another adjournment.

The matters of Jamie Hillhouse, 46, and Nicole Hillhouse, 30, were briefly mentioned at Penrith Local Court on Friday, March 24, after they were charged with ‘destroying or damaging property in company by means of explosives’.

In 2022, the woman was also charged with ‘aggravated robbery’, ‘larceny’, ‘dishonestly obtain property by deception’, ‘assault occasioning actual bodily harm’, two counts of ‘supply prohibited drugs on an ongoing basis’ and 14 counts of ‘supply a prohibited drug’.

It is alleged that the co-accuseds recklessly destroyed a Cranebrook home at around 10pm on Wednesday, May 25, 2022.

The prosecutor previously told the court that the fire and explosives caused $250,000 worth of damage to the now uninhabitable home. The court also heard that the 30-yearold, who has been in custody on remand since September, was accused of supplying methylamphetamine, robbing a Penrith woman and purchasing $203.70 worth of groceries from the Woolworths at Jordan Springs with a man’s stolen credit card.

Last month, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) told Magistrate Fiona Toose that they require more time to consider the evidence before the charge certificates proceed on the next court date.

Ms Hillhouse was also served a 12-month apprehended violence order for the protection of an alleged victim and instructed to enter a plea in relation to some of the other matters.

“That’s ridiculous, seven times in and no plea entered,” Magistrate Toose told her lawyer.

Ms Hillhouse pleaded guilty to the charges, ‘never licenced person drive vehicle on road’ and ‘possess prohibited drugs’, which were laid in August.

Neither of the co-accuseds applied for bail and it was formally refused.

They are both expected to reappear at the same court via audio visual link on April 14.

Ray Moody has major concerns about the future of his business as a result of the work to widen Mulgoa Road in Penrith.

The owner of Western Motorcycles Sydney wants to raise awareness about the impacts of the current process regarding compulsory acquisitions.

Opening the store in St Marys in 1975 and relocating to the current location in 1998, Moody told the Weekender he was first approached by the NSW Government in relation to his land around five years ago.

“A property valuer the government used initially asked us a bunch of questions and offered me a price that was an insult to my intelligence, then about a year later they doubled the original price which was still low,” Moody said.

“In 2019 the Valuer General worked out a price of $1500 a square metre but in 2020 Transport for NSW, through their law firm offered me $800 a square metre.”

After spending $200,000 fighting the offer, Moody was considering taking it further to the Land and Environmental Court.

“I was told I would need over $120,000 to get experts and would probably lose so, because I was physically sick from stress and almost had