Magistrate’s Court FOUR JOINT CHARGES: MAN TO STAND TRIAL

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28748, 20 November 1958, Page 9

Magistrate’s Court FOUR JOINT CHARGES: MAN TO STAND TRIAL

Maxwell Carlton Carney, aged 34, a seaman, pleaded not guilty to three joint charges of theft and one joint charge of breaking and entering with intent to commit theft, and elected trial by jury, when he appeared before Messrs R. H. Harris and W. W. Laing. Justices of the Peace, m the Magistrates Court yesterday. The offences w r ere alleged to have been committed at Sumner on October 16. Carney was charged with thefts totalling £B7. Another man who i appeared on the same series of 1 joint charges pleaded guilty to all charges w'hen he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court earlier this month. After hearing 12 witnesses the Justices committed the accused to the Supreme Court for trial. He was granted bail in his own recognisance of £2OO, with two sureties of £2OO, and was ordered to report daily to the police. Another charge of theft was adjourned to November 30. Senior-Sergeant J. B. McLean prosecuted and Mr D. J. Boyle appeared for the accused. Nelson Cuthbert Elliott, a factory worker, said in evidence that a piano accordion xvas stolen from his car outside the Sumner Town Hall on the evening of October 16, and Alana George Fordham said that after attending a function in Sumner on the same night, he found that his overcoat, valued at £l3, and a roll of plastic hose were missing from his car.

j Irma Tang, proprietor of the Sumner Fruit Supply, said she i xvas working in the yard on her i premises late on the evening of October 16. and about 11.30 p.m. saw a car approaching at a fast I pace.

“The car passed me and stop- : ped not very far away in Mar- : riner street,” said the witness. “A few minutes later I saw two men walking back and forward on the ' opposite side of the road, in front of Mr D. J. Lyons’s shop in Marriner street. They then went into. Wakefield avenue.” The men returned to the front of the store in Marriner street.! ' and the witness said she saw one )of them—whom she identified as the accused —shoulder the door of! 'the shop. The man with him was I watching for traffic. She then rang [Constable McCormick at the Sum- ' ner Police Station, said the witness. and shortly after returning ito the yard she saw one of the men break a window at the side of Mr Lyons’s shop. “After breaking the window' they walked a short distance down the street, then came back to the broken window’ and helped each other to try to break into the shop,” the witness said. The other man was standing on the accused’s shoulders or back, and had his hands through the window. “They apparently could not open the window, which they left and walked round into Mr Lyons’s] backyard again,” she said. “lj went back into my shop, and later. Constable Kozanic came to see me and I accompanied him to w’here four men were standing. I recognised two of them as the men who had attempted to break into the shop.” To Mr Boyle the witness said I she could sec the whole of the doorway of Mr Lyons’s shop and I part of Wakefield avenue, and :could see the w hole length of Marriner street down the side of the I shop. . Constable I. Kozanic said he reIceived a telephone call from Constable McCormick and cycled to . the Sumner Police Station. He called at Mr Lyons’s house on | the w’ay. and arranged to meet I Mr Lyons at the station. “At the station I met Constable McCormick and a Mr Nelson Elliott, who reported a piano accordion stolen from his car out* side the Sumner Town Hall earlier that evening.” said Constable Kozanic. “When Mr Lyons arrived. I asked Mr Elliott if he would accompany Mr Lyons and myself to the scene. I separated from the two men, who went along Marriner street to Wakefield avenue, while I went through an alley to Marriner street.

“Near the shop I saw' a man standing across the road, while another man was at the boot of a car nearby. The man on the footpath, whom I recognised as the accused, told his companion to leave the car where it was and they would return the next day for some petrol and take the car aw’ay.”

The witness said he approached the men, and the accused said they had run out of petrol and were going to get. some from the service station. There were no petrol pumps nearby, and the car did not belong to either man. The witness then went to Mrs Tang’s shop, and Mrs Tang accompanied him to w’here the two men were standing with Messrs Lyons and Elliott.. She recognised the I two men as those who had : attempted to break into the shop. | After he had accompanied the two persons to the police station. | Constable Kozanic said he returned to examine the car used by | them, and found a piano accord- , ion. a roll of plastic hose, an over--coat. and an overnight bag. all of -which were stolen property, in the . car. COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE I A youth, aged 19. pleaded guilty i to charges of attempting to commit unnatural acts with another I male on June 27 and August 6. and w’as committed to the Sups reme Court for sentence. An api plication for the suppression of i his name was granted. .'-Before Mr N. M. Izard. S.M.OBSCENE EXPOSURE ' Bernard Augustine Murphy, aged 41, who pleaded guilty to a charge of wilful obscene ex- . posure in Colombo street on i November 18. was remanded tn i November 27 f«r a probation ! officer's report. Murphy had just been released from Paparua Prison, and at the itime of the offence had been drinking but was not drunk, Ser- ; geant E. S. Tuck said. Murphv Jhad approached a girl sitting on la fence in north Colombo streeand she told her father what had happened. A search was made of nearby streets, and Murphy was found and arrested. REMANDED Hayton George Williams, aged •31. was remanded to Novembei 124 on a charge of being idle and i disorderly on November 18 in i that he had insufficient lawful I means of support. He pleaded not . guilty. i Sergeant E. S. Tuck said that I Williams had been arrested the {previous afternoon, and he had

understood that a different plea was to have been entered. Williams was granted bail of £lOO, with one surety of a £lOO. and was ordered to report daily to the police. Donald Akers Sharp, aged 35, was remanded to November 27 on a charge of obtaining £B6 by false pretences between November 1 and November 10. He was represented by Mr D. H. Godfrey. Bail of £lOO was granted, with one surety of £lOO. Carl Alexander Olsson, aged 29 (Mr J. D. Boyle), was remanded to November 27 on a charge of escaping from lawful custody at Dunedin on November 7. Sergeant E. S. Tuck said that other matters were to be completed. NO RADIO LICENCE Cecil Roy Cooksley was fined £2 for not having a radio licence. SHOPS NOT CLOSED For failing to close their shops during the week-end when non exempted goods were exposed for sale, Thomas Stoddart and Wilfred Neville Rosindale were each fined £3. (Before Mr E. A. Lee, S.M.) CIVIL CASE Judgment was given for the defendant, Malcolm Thomas Gor- ; don, a carpenter <Mr J. B. Weir), in a claim by Surefreeze Sales and Service. Ltd. (Mr H. O. Jacobsen), for £45. The case was heard on Tuesday, the Magistrate reserving his decision. The defendant sent a refrigerator to the plaintiff company for repairs. The cabinet of the refrigerator was sent to Wholesale Refrigerators. Ltd., for painting, and was destroyed in a fire at that company’s premises. Another refrigerator was supplied to the defendant, the plaintiff alleging that he had agreed to pay £45 for it. The defendant denied any such agreement.