SENT TO GAOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 230, 29 September 1938, Page 5

SENT TO GAOL.

ARMED ROBBERS.

TAXI HOLD-UP CASE.

SERIOUSNESS STRESSED.

DELIBERATELY PLANNED

The two men eoni-orned in the Atta T.i\i rohlH-ry on August 8, Arthur Sticking (30) »,n<l Humid Last Gray (I"), .•«,„,. beft.ro Mr. Justice Fair in the Supreme Court to-day, and were sentenced to terms of haul labour, .Sticking* to four years and (.; ro y to tin cc years. A ~1,., i on behalf of the prisoners wa « "-""I" I'.v Mr. S. Clarke, who pointed "Ul that, though there were tu,> „"," him minor otienccs „„ Sticking*' list and one of thett against Cray, both had occurred so many years ago that both oiri'mirM e,,,,W1 l ,rat,tl ««»!y «« first ( ..UII-.-I pointed out that Sticking* ..ul saved the country cost and trouble by ii mil and immediate confusion when ariv.te.l in Sydney, and had made arranuemi'nts for restitution to the Atta Company by assignment of interest in a property to come to him at his mothers death to the value of £->4--, Tli.it «ould eiiMire full restitution and i-1... the costs of his extradition f IO m Svdiiev.

Plea in Mitigation. Referring to the crime, counsel said that .-.tickings had been a seaman practically all his life, but for two short period* had been employed by the Atta la\i Company. Later he had domestic trouble, his married life being marked by separations and reconciliations, and he fell out of work. Keeling that everything was against him, he had recollection of the Atta Taxi Company's illguarded office. This recollection returned to him with added force when, after signing on the ship Limerick, it wa« found that six men had been signed on for five jobs, and he vas the man to be put off. Mis Honor drew attention to the serious point that the men carried weapons a sawnoff shotgun and a length of lead piping. Counsel replied that this was so, hut in their depositions they made it clear that in the event of trouble they were to run away nt once without using the weapon*, and that the gun was not loaded. Cray, the older man, had lieen led into the crime by Stickings, said Mr. Clarke. He was a married man from VVestport, with a good reputation. He, too. was a seaman. He him happily married, and had a family of six children, of ages ranging from 22 years to five years.™ Gravity of the Crime.

Mr. 0. S. R. Meredith, for the Crown. said it wan unusual when prisoners had pleaded guilty for the Crown to comment on a plea for mitigation. But he felt impelled in this case to draw nttcntion to the gravity of the offence, an offence for which guilty persons were liable to imprisonment for life, and in some circumstances to be also flogged. When men unable to get money went to such lengths as to carry a sawnoff shotgun and a length of lead piping, and to go masked and gloved to a robbery, it was expected that the Court would impose a sentence such as would be a deterrent. The crime wae that known as robbery under arms.

His Honor agreed with counsel for the Crown as to the seriousness of the offence, and said the prisoners must be sentenced to a substantial term of imprisonment. They had deliberately made preparation for the crime, and even if the gun was not loaded tlwy had the length of lead piping, which, in some circumstances, was an deadly as a revolver, and a silent weapon "which they might have been tempted to me in certain circumstances. Taking into account all that could be said in their favour, he must sentence the prisoners to the terms of hard labour stated, though he did not deem it necessary to order a flogging.

An order was made that the £23 4/9 found on Sticking*! when he was arrested be paid over to the taxi company which h*d been robbed.