MAN CONVICTED OF THEFTS

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29238, 23 June 1960, Page 20

MAN CONVICTED OF THEFTS

Remanded For Sentence

(New Zealand Press Aaaoetatlon) ROTORUA, June 22.

After pleading not guilty to a series of charges and electing trial by jury when brought before the Rotorua Court on June 7, John Brian Ford, aged 27, of no fixed abode, today elected summary jurisdiction when brought before Messrs P. H. Leonard and D. Jervis, Justices of the Peace, for the Lower Court hearing, and changed his plea to guilty. The charges included the theft of gelignite, detonators, fuse and crimping pliers of a total value of £2 Is from Hendersons’s Quarry, Ngongotaha, the theft of bedding valued at £lB 15s, and the theft of an overcoat valued at £7 all on May 24. Ford was also charged with breaking and entering two premises at Cambridge on May 23, and committing theft, and also with assault in Auckland on May 19. Yesterday, Ford was charged before Mr G. J. Donne, S.M., with having no lawful excuse for being in the possession of explosives. He was also charged V'ith wilful damage to two locks, ond also with the theft of two women’s handbags and contents to the value of £l5. Dealing with the wilful damage charge, to which Ford pleaded not guilty, Detective Senior-Sergeant W. H. A. Sharp told the Court that during the night of May 24, locks securing the doors of two sheds at the Ngongotaha Quarry were smashed open. The following evening, a report was received at the Rotorua Police Station that men had been seen acting in a suspicious manner near cars parked in Hinemoa street. The men made off in the direction of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. A police patrol found accused hiding in an unlighted washhouse at the hospital. He had the explosives in a bag and told the police that he had stolen them from Ngongotaha. He also admitted stealing the handbags. Ford was convicted on all charges and remanded in custody until Tuesday.