CONVERSION OF £1000 CAR

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27875, 25 January 1956, Page 3

CONVERSION OF £1000 CAR

THREE YOUTHS SENT TO BORSTAL HIGH-SPEED CHASE BY POLICE RECALLED (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, January 24. Three of four youths who converted a £lOOO sports car in Auckland and were chased by police at high speeds through the Rotorua and Waikato districts, were sentenced today to Borstal training, with a maximum term of three years. They appeared in the Magistrate’s Court before Mr L. G. H. Sinclair, S.M. On behalf of Derrick Vincent Wilson, aged 18, a seaman, and Barry Thomas Kerr, aged 22, a labourer, Dr. A. M. Finlay submitted that the actions of the group had resulted more from a dare among them than from planned criminal action. “All were involved, and each was reluctant to back down,” he said. “It was not so much that they had a tiger by the tail, but that instead they had a car by the wheel and were reluctant to let go.” Wilson. Kerr, and Phil Arthur Ottley, aged 19, all appeared for sentence on joint charges of taking the car for their own use. breaking and entering, and attempted breaking and entering. Ottley also appeared for sentence on a charge of false pretences and another of driving while disqualified. He also admitted a breach of probation. The fourth youth, Robert Michael Edward Blackmoore, aged 19, a driver, U’as sentenced to Borstal training last Week. For Kerr, the very nature of the offence precluded probation, said the Magistrate. The group had done desperate things and endangered the lives of other people. Kerr was a better lad than the others, but it was up to him How’ to prove it. “Undesirable Type” Wilson, an Australian, was an undesirable type, and he intended recommending the authorities to use every means to remove him from New Zealand, said the Magistrate. There was Ho place in this community for the teddy boy type. The Magistrate said Ottley w’as one of the cheekiest boys he had seen, and his record rather proved it. Unless he reformed he would have a “very tough time indeed.” The Magistrate said he would not make the recommendations to the Parole Board for Ottley that he intended doing for Kerr. His period of disqualification from driving would also be extended by a year so that he could not drive when released from Borstal. “I hope you won’t be able to drive again. I’m giving you the maximum I can to keep you off the road,” said the Magistrate.