FIVE YOUNG MEN SENTENCED

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24749, 14 December 1945, Page 3

FIVE YOUNG MEN SENTENCED

♦ RECENT HOLD-UPS IN AUCKLAND

(P A.) AUCKLAND, December 13. As a sequel to two Auckland hold-ups last month, five young men came before Mr Justice Callan, in the Supreme Court to-day, and were sentenced to terms of detention in prison and Borstal, ranging from 18 months to three years. They were Phillip John Sankey, aged 17; William Rawirl Green, aged 28; William Ardern, aged 19; and Tutanekat Tipene, aged 22, who had admitted that, being armed with a revolver, they assaulted and attempted to rob a party of fan-tan players in Chinese premises in Grey’s avenue on November 16.

Sankey also admitted being concerned in the hold-up and robbery of a taxidriver at Penrose, an.d the unlawful conversion of a taxi on November 18. Also in the dock for sentence for taking part m the taxi hold-up was Keith Thomas Parker, aged 19. Observing that the offences were so serious that the accused were liable to life imprisonment, his Honour said that after a war there was always noticed a tendency to this kind of crime, when firearms got into the community in profusion, and into unsuitable hands. The Court s duty was to deal with crime so as to discourage its growth or repetition. He could not here apportion blame on the statements of the accused, who each blamed someone else, so they would be treated according to their ages and records.

Green, the oldest.- had provided the firearm. If he were so weak willed that at 28 years of age he could be led by boys, he was all the more dangerous. He would be sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment with hard labour, to be followed by reformative detention for 12 months, iipene, who had several previous conviction®, f , or theft, was sentenced to 18 I 1 * 0 .? 1 reformative detention. Sankey and Ardern were each ordered to be detained in a Borstal institution for three years, and Parker was sent to Borstal for two years.