PLEA OF GUILTY TO ELEVEN CHARGES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25179, 9 May 1947, Page 5

PLEA OF GUILTY TO ELEVEN CHARGES

CONVERSION OF CARS ADMITTED (PA.) DUNEDIN, May 8. How a young man stole property from the Dunedin Town Hali, converted and ransacked cars in Dunedin and Invercargill, was arrested at Christchurch, escaped from the Dunedin gaol, and was subsequently rearrested at Karitane in yet another converted vehicle was told in the City Police Court to-day, when Ronald James Blair, aged 22, a fisherman and labourer, of Karitane, pleaded guilty to 11 charges of theft, conversion, attempted conversion, and escaping from custody. Accused, who elected to be dealt with summarily, was remanded to appear again to-morrow for sentence. Detective-Sergeant Macdonald Brown said that on April 20 accused entered the Town Hall, where he stole from three offices articles to the total Value of £ll Os 7d. Hd J then went to Invercargill and on April 22, about 10 p.m., he had attempted to convert a car in order to return to Dunedin. He was unable to start the car, so the ransacked the pockets, stealing miscellaneous articles to th 6 value of £3 0s 3d. He continued his search and found a truck in which the ignition key had been left. He took this truck but abandoned it at Gore when it ran out of petrol. After “hitch-hiking" to Dunedin, the detective-sergeant said, the accused on his own admission roamed the streets looking for a car to convert and found one, in which he drove to Christchurch, where he was arrested. Last Saturday morning, while he was on remand in the > Dunedin prison, he was being conducted with six others from the second floor to the yard for exercise when, taking advantage of the early morning darkness, he walked along a passage and made his escape. He took a truck owned by the Dunedin City Corporation and drove to Karitane, where he was arrested. . , x "Accused has been very frank, but that is about the only good thing we can say about him," said the detective-ser-geant. He added that Blair had,a long list of previous convictions and was a definite problem. . The probation officer (Mr E. F. Mosley) said the accused had recently been discharged from Borstal. He had at one time been in a mental hospital, and Was not quite normal. “He is a menace to the public with his propensity for stealing cars and for thieving,” said the Magistrate (Mr J. D. Willis), who ordered that the accused should be remanded in custody.