Breaking And Entering

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14929, 17 March 1949, Page 6

Breaking And Entering

(Continued from Page 3)

discovered the purse on the Tauranga wharf. There were sundry papers in it but no money. » Pleading guilty to the charge of breaking, entering and theft, Nathan was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Puree Robbed

The second charge was of theft from the Mount Pleasant boardinghouse in Elizabeth Street, and the theft of money and property to the value cf £35, belonging to the proprietress. Francis Hannah Jones. The offence occurred on February 19, 1949. Mrs Jones said that about G p.m. on that day she had gone to examine her purse, which she kept in a duchess drawer of her room. At that time the money was there, but some time after 8 p.m. she again had occasion to go for her purse, and the £27 it should have contained was missing. Missing as well, she said, were a woman's wristlet watch and a powder compact, which were produced in the court and identified as belonging to her. A small purse had also been taken from a shelf in the room.

In a statement accused said that on February 19 he had entered' through the window of a room in the Mount Pleasant boarding house. He took a purse from the top drawer of a dressing table. It contained £27, he said- which he soent on beer. Constable Lockie said he had recovered the watch at Matapihi, where the accused was staying with his sister. Accused had readilv assisted to "clean the matter up," added Constable Lockie. Company's Offices Entered

Witness in the third charge of breaking and entering brought ?gainst Nathan, Mr B. P. Andrews (branch manager of the Northern Steamship Company, Tauranga) said that shortlv after 10 o'clock on the night of March 11 he left the company's premises in Dive< Crescent, at which time everything was in order. Mr Andrews said that he returned to the office at 7.55 o'clock on the following morning, and the place was in disorder, with the fanlight and fittings facing the Strand smashed. «

"I could clearly see," continued the witness, "that some person had entered the office as the drawers were disordered and the contents strewn about."

He was quite definite that the window had been broken some time in the night during his absence. Below the fanlight and on a desk, witness said he had found a sum of money, 4s 9d in cash, which had not been there the night before, and was probably dropped, he added, by the intruder.

A woman's bicycle was found by witness propped up against the outside wall of the office and beneath the fanlight. The cycle was usually housed in a shed and was evidently used by the intruder to reach the window. The marks indicated that.

"Nothing was actually stolen from the premises. The safe was net tried as far as I could see," said Mr Andrews. "I communicated with the police." Mr Hylton (oh the bench): Was the money you found not company property?—No. Did it not belong to someone employed in the office? —No. Constable Lockie said that the marks on-the bicycle and beneath the fanlight indicated that someone had climbed up to the window. In the office, below the fanlight were scattered money and glass. Constable Lockie said that he had searched the office and found that a number of drawers had been ransacked but nothing had been stolen. The safe was in order. As the result of inquiries he went to the Tauranga wharf at 11 a.m. with the obiect of interviewing a suspect—Nathan—who had left his work during a morning tea break and did not return. He had arrested Nathan at 5.20 pm. the same dav, said the Constable, and.taken him to the Police Station, where accused had frankly , admitted breaking into the shipping company's offices. In a statement to the police Nathan said that he had attended a party in a shed at the wharf, and that it had been in progress until 1 a.m., after which he had gone to the shipping offices in Dive Crescent.. He had climbed through the window, which he had broken with his head, by the means, of a bicycle. He had been unable to find any money in the office, and was unaware that he had dropped some. He had not tried the safe, he said. Theft at Rotorua The theft offence for which recused "was remanded to appear at Rotorua on March 25, occurred on January 31 at the Waiotapu Hotel, the dwelling house of Harold George Walker. The property stolen on this occasion included, a cash box containing a woman's v/ristlet watch, a gold locket, a triple string of pearls, a gold garnet bangle, a gold bar brooch, a string of ebony beads, a woman's gold dress ring, ten £lO war bonds, a Sum of £34s—articles to the total value of £546 ss, the property of Harold George Walker and Charlotte Rebecca Walker.