In Melbourne, he met Bishop Charles Perry and, in 1868, he was appointed lay reader at Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, with the intention of entering the Anglican priesthood on the completion of his service.

On 8 May 1869, Scott was accused of disguising himself and forcing bank agent Ludwig Julius Wilhelm Bruun, a young man whom he had befriended, to open the safe.

"[citation needed] After this he went to the Maitland district, near Newcastle and was there convicted on two charges of obtaining money by false pretences for which he was sentenced to twelve and eighteen months' imprisonment.

Of these concurrent terms, Scott served fifteen months, at the expiration of which time he returned to Sydney where, in March 1872, he was arrested on the charge of robbing the London Chartered Bank of Australia in Egerton and forwarded to Ballarat for examination and trial.

Making use of his keys, they proceeded to other cells, liberating four other prisoners, and the six men succeeded in escaping over the wall by means of blankets cut into strips, which they used as a rope.

In July he was tried before judge Sir Redmond Barry at the Ballarat Circuit Court when, by a series of cross-examinations of unprecedented length conducted by himself after rejecting his counsel, he spread the case over no less than eight days, but was at last convicted, and sentenced to 10 years' hard labour.

Throughout this period Scott was harried by the authorities and by the tabloid press who attempted to link him to numerous crimes in the colony and printed fantastic rumours about supposed plots he had underway.

On Saturday evening, 15 November 1879 they entered the little settlement of Wantabadgery, about 45 km (28 miles) from Gundagai, and proceeded to "bail up" (confine and rob) all the residents.

By this stage they were on the verge of starvation, after spending cold and rainy nights in the bush and in Moonlite's words succumbed to "desperation", terrorising staff and the family of Claude McDonald, the station owner.

[7] One man, Ruskin, escaped in an attempt to warn others, but was caught and subject to a mock trial, the jury of his fellow prisoners finding him "not guilty".

Carroll led an assault upon the kitchen, and in this rally Constable Edward Webb-Bowen was fatally wounded, a bullet from one of the gang members entering his neck, and lodging near the spine.

When Scott saw Nesbitt shot down and was distracted, McGlede took the opportunity to disarm the gang leader and with the other members wounded, or captured on attempting to flee, the fire fight came to a close.

Scott went to the gallows wearing a ring woven from a lock of Nesbitt's hair on his finger[11] and his final request was to be buried in the same grave as his constant companion, "My dying wish is to be buried beside my beloved James Nesbitt, the man with whom I was united by every tie which could bind human friendship, we were one in hopes, in heart and soul and this unity lasted until he died in my arms."

His request was not granted by the authorities of the time, but in January 1995, his remains were exhumed from Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney and reinterred at Gundagai next to Nesbitt's grave.

[12] His life was dramatised in: Also noted in the 1992 film Far and Away In October 2017, the Australasian History television channel broadcast an episode about Captain Moonlite,[14] showing evidence that Scott did not shoot Webb-Bowen, but that Wreneckie did.