TO STAND TRIAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 32, 17 November 1939, Page 6

TO STAND TRIAL

ALLEGED THEFT OF MONEY. INCIDENTS IN BOARDING-HOUSE. ACCUSED PLEADS NOT GUILTY. Evidence of the alleged theft of a sum of money from a boarder at an establishment in Ashburton was heard in the Ashburton Magistrate’s Court this morning, before Mr H, Morgan, ‘S.M.

Angus Duncan Storrier (Mr L. A. Charles) was charged with having stolen £25, the property of Sydney Pool.

Sergeant J. F. Cleary stated that accused was left in a bedroom of a lodging house by" a fellow-hoarder who had £25 in notes in his vest pocket. Accused was gone when the owner of the money returned, and the money had disappeared, too. Accused elected to be tried by jury. Sydney Poole said he went to a hoarding-house in Cameron Street, when he arrived in Ashburton on November 4 and he shared a room with accused. On November 8 he went to the bathroom and shaved. Accused was in the bedroom when witness left it. There was money in witness’s vest, buttoned into an inside pocket. Accused had left when witness returned to the bedroom and put on his vest without noticing anything unusual. Witness went to the races at Riccarton that day and there he discovered that the button of the pocke.t was undone. In the pocket there was a cheque and two £5 notes, folded together, but £25 in notes had gone. He returned to Ashburton that night, but did not see accused till the morning of the 10th, when accused was with a constable. Correcting his statement, witness said he sa®^ accused in the sitting room the previous night. He did not mention the money to' accused, as the matter was in the hands of the police by that time. To ‘Mr Charles: The money was in the pocket when he-went to bed the night before he missed it. To the Magistrate: He talked with accused about the races and he told accused he had made about £2O or thereabouts. From 8 a.m. to 12.30 he had no occasion to feel in the pocket where the money was kept. He went to Christchurch by train and did not go to sleep on the journey. He had known accused about 17 years.

. Payment of a Debt.' Margaret Purdie, boardinghousekeeper, said accused had stayed at her house at intervals oyer the last two years. On November & accused left on his bicycle without saying good-bye. He usually told her where he was going. He did' not return till the following night, when she heard him speaking in a room. Three days before he had told witness he could not pay her the money he owed but that he was going to a job and would be able to pay then. On the Friday morning, in the presence of a constable, accused produced ,a wallet with £7 in it and he had given her £3 before that. He said he had just come from a man who had employed him and had drawn a cheque, the work being on a chaff cutter for two days. He said he had paid a few other debts and now he was going to see his girl and go to Christchurch for the week-end.

Witness suggested the constable should ring up the employer to* check the statement. Accused got excited then and said’: “No, no, don’t ring up. The money on me I saved up when I worked for tlie Council a few months ago.” Accused was trembling. He did not save money.

Joseph Stanley Patterson, a boarder at Mrs, Purdie’s house, gave evidence of a conversation he had with accused on the morning of November 8. Mitchell Charles Knox, contractor, said he had employed accused and since June 20 had paid him £63 9s 4d, the last payment before tbe date of the offence being on November 3, an amount of £2. A small payment had been made to him on November 16. No money was paid on November 10. Constable T. T. Harris stated that he saw accused at the boarding-house and told him he was suspected of theft. Accused denied the charge and produced a wallet from which he took five single notes. From his trouser pocket he took £2 Os OJd. He said .he got the money from Mr Knox for work done on a chaffcutter. When Mrs Purdie suggested ringing up Knox, accused changed his statement. At the Police Station, he made a statement, which was typed, but he refused to sign it. When accused was searched another pound note was found in the wallet, making a total of £ll Os o|d he had that morning. Accused pleaded not guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court at Christchurch for trial. Accused was allowed bail, self £SO, and one surety of £SO, or two of £25 each, and he was ordered tf report to the police 'once a week.