SHORT OF MONEY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 167, 17 July 1941, Page 8

SHORT OF MONEY

GUNNER BURGLAR

DESERTER FOR SENTENCE

A gunner, Roland William Rainham, aged 20, who deserted his regiment at North Head, appeared in the Police Court before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., to-day, when he pleaded guilty to a charge of breaking and entering the house of Mrs. E. H. Marshall in Fairfax Avenue, Penrose, on July 14, and stealing £18 G/ in money. He was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.

Constable A. R. Gibson, of Ellerslie, said he received a complaint on the morning of July 14, and located and interviewed Rainham later the same day. In a statement which ho made to witness, Rainham said lie was a gunner attached to the heavy artillery. After deserting on May 22 he stayed at Te Awamutu and later lived at Fairfax Avenue, Penrose. On Sunday, July 13, about :i p.m., he saw Mr. and Mrs. Marshall and their child leave their home in a motor car. "I suggested to a schoolboy of 13 that I would go into Marshall's house to see if I could find any money," continued accused in the statement. "I told the boy to keep watch while 1 entered the house."

Rainham added that he got in through a side window, and from a purse in a handbag he took £18 in notes. From a child's money box he took 6/ and threw the money box over a fence into a paddock. He gave the schoolboy £8 and kept the rest of the money himself. When questioned by Constable Gibson he handed the constable £10 6/. The boy returned the £8 which accused had given him. "The boy had nothing whatever to do with breaking into the house," Rainham said. "I suggested to the boy I should break in as I was short of money." Rainham was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.