MAN ADMITS PART IN LAKE COLERIDGE THEFT

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27912, 8 March 1956, Page 10

MAN ADMITS PART IN LAKE COLERIDGE THEFT

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

lan Robertson Mclntosh, aged 26, a labourer (Mr B. McClelland), elected trial by jury when he appeared before Mr L. N. Ritchie, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of breaking and entering the post office at Lake Coleridge on February 11, and committing theft. After evidence had been given by seven witnesses, including two men who had already pleaded guilty to the same charge and been sentenced on it, counsel for Mclntosh told the Court that Mclntosh wanted the opportunity to plead again. The charge was read once more and Mclntosh pleaded guilty and elected to be dealt with by the Magistrate. He was remanded to March 15 for sentence, pending a report by the Probation Officer. Senior-Detective J. B. McLean prosecuted. Witnesses called by the prosecution were Maurice Hill Mullaney, a surveyor, Lucyna Renata Motyl, postmistress at Lake Coleridge; Constable Selwyn David Soper; George Bowland Good, a gardener; and William Hugh Burrows, a labourer The next witness was John Lawrence McTaggart, aged 30, who said he was at present serving a sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment on a charge of breaking and entering the Lake Coleridge post office. He had pleaded guilty. He said that he and a man Egan and Mclntosh went to Lake Coleridge on the evening of February 11 in a car driven by Angell. “On the way, there was talk o£ doing the thing, but we didn’t know it was going to turn out as it did. We were all full,” said McTaggart. “When we got to Lake Coleridge the car was stopped a mile or so out of the township. I’d some idea then what was gbing to happen, but it was too late to do anything. “I couldn't walk 85 miles back to Christchurch,” said McTaggart. “The only one of us who knew the area is in the dock. Egan and Mclntosh went away for half an hour and when they returned we drove past the post office. There were lights on in the post office then. Egan was prepared tc return straight to Christchurch and we were going to telephone to the girls in Christchurch. “The post office was in darkness when we went along again,” said McTaggart. “Egan and Mclntosh went away, and a quarter of an hour later Mclntosh came back to the car. He said the safe was out by the door and it was too heavy for two men to lift. He got into the car and Angell drove us to the post office Mclntosh and I got out, leaving Angell in the car with the engine running. The safe was in the alcove of the post office and Egan, Mclntosh and I dragged it out to the end of the concrete. We lifted it, but it slipped on to the road. Two men came on the scene, and we made a break for it. Egan and I stayed together until we were caught. I don’t know what happened to McIntosh.”

Arthur Ronald Angell, aged 24. said he was serving a sentence of corrective training for breaking and entering the Lake Coleridge post office. He drove the car to Lake Coleridge. “On the way there, Mclntosh said: ‘We’re going to do the Lake Coleridge post office over’,” said Angell. He then gave evidence similar to that of McTaggart up to where he, Angell, was left in the car at the post office. “I had the engine running and the car in low gear. I was keeping a lookout and did not see what the other three were doing at the back of the car,” said Angell. “When I saw two men coming, one of the others saw them, too, and told me to go. I don’t know whose

voice it was. I took off, and left the other three behind.” At this stage there was a brief adjournment of the Court at the request of Mr McClelland. When it resumed, Mr McClelland said that McIntosh wished to have an opportunity to plead.

He pleaded guilty. Senior-Detective McLean read a summary of the facts to the Court. He said that Mclntosh and three other men went to Lake Coleridge in a car on February 11 and at 10.45 p.m. they broke into the post office. They were taking the safe to the car when two residents of the township came along. Angell drove off and the other three ran. There was a search in which the police were assisted by residents of the district and the three men were caught. Mclntosh had previous convictions. (Before Mr Rex C. Abernethy, S.M.) ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE Boris Alexis Anthony Haykelan, aged 19, Leslie Miller, aged 20, Alfred William Bourne, aged 21. Lawrence Blackburn, aged 17, and Dennis Wakefield, aged 20, all seamen, appeared further on a charge of being absent without leave from the overseas ship Wendover at Lyttelton on January 20, they having been detained one month. Dr. A. L. Haslam, fo rthe shipping company, said it had been hoped to put the five on a ship a fortnight ago sailing direct to England but that ship was diverted to American ports. Satisfactory arrangements had now been made to send them by another ship sailing direct to England in the near future, though the definite date was not known. The men would have to be detained until they were put on a ship. The Magistrate made an order that the five men be detained in custody for three months and said it meant they would be put on the first available ship. FINED FOR SPEEDING Gordon Horace Hartman and Herbert Moses South, the latter represented by Mr A. D. Holland, pleaded not guilty to a charge that on December 30, at Clarendon, each drove in a manner which might have been dangerous. Traffic Officer J. D. Marshall, of the Transport Department, Dunedin, said he was sitting in his car at Clarendon, south of Dunedin, at 3.15 p.m. on December 30 when two cars passed at high speed. He went after them and saw the two cars racing abreast for some hundreds of yards. The road was undulating, with blind crests. He checked the speed of the cars for half a mile at 62 miles an hour, during which they crossed one intersection. There was not much traffic on the road. When he stopped them they frankly admitted they had been having a race and said they had been doing 70 miles an hour earlier. Hartman, in evidence, said he was guilty of speeding but failed to see that it was speed dangerous on such a straight road. His speed was never 70 miles an hour, for his small car could not reach that speed. No evidence was called for South. The Magistrate said he thought the fairer way to deal with the defendants would be to charge them with exceeding the speed limit. Their driving ran pretty close to being dangerous but there was a doubt. The charge was amended to exceeding 50 miles an hour on the open highway. The defendants pleaded guilty to that charge and each was fined £6. REMANDED Stanley Alfred Allen Mclntosh, aged 23, a labourer (Mr B. J. Drake), was remanded on bail of £lO to March 15 on a charge that on March 2 he stole a razor, a shaving brush, and £2 17s 6d in money, the property of Raymond William Collier.