Wagga firefighter turned firebug Daniel Dennis pleads guilty to making false calls to emergency services

Daniel Dennis pleaded guilty to 13 counts of making false triple zero calls when he appeared before Magistrate Rebecca Hosking in Wagga Local Court on Monday.

The Ashmont man also pleaded guilty to making "vexatious" calls to an emergency service number.

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The 34-year-old had previously pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally causing a fire and being reckless as to its spread and a further count of making a false call to an emergency service number.

In June, police charged Dennis with a further 13 counts of making of false triple zero calls between October 2020 and last November, to which he pleaded guilty to on Monday.

Police allege between 1.30am on January 27, 2021 and December 10, 2022, Dennis made "no less than 10 vexatious calls to emergency service number 000".

The fire charge relates to an incident at San Isidore shortly after 2.10am on December 11, 2022.

At the time, those in a passing ambulance vehicle observed a small grass fire on Kapooka Road and contacted emergency services.

Crews from the NSW Rural Fire Service arrived and put out the fire, however the cause of the blaze was deemed suspicious and referred to police for further investigation.

In January, detectives from the State Crime Command's Financial Crime Squad Arson Unit, Riverina Police District and RFS fire investigators began investigating the San Isidore fire and a number of other suspicious fires in the Wagga area during December and January.

After inquiries, detectives searched a home on Bardia Street in Ashmont on February 9.

Dennis was arrested at the home and taken to Wagga police station, where he was charged.

Police documents tendered to the court said Dennis deliberately lit the grass fire at San Isidore and allowed it to spread to vegetation along the side of Kapooka Road, near the Sturt Highway intersection.

Police said he then attended the blaze as a volunteer firefighter to extinguish it.

Magistrate Hosking adjourned the matter and it has been listed for sentencing on September 25.

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