49 CHARGES FACED

Press, Volume C, Issue 29552, 29 June 1961, Page 15

49 CHARGES FACED

inans crimes On Coast (N.Z. Press Association) GREYMOUTH, June 28. Forty-nine charges of shop or countinghouse breaking, entering, and theft. or attempts, and vehicle conversion, between December 20 last and June 18. were admitted by a Blaketown carpenter and barman, Patrick Joseph Ward, aged 37, in the Magistrate’s Court at Greymouth today. The charges took 25 minutes to read. The offences, which occurred in waves in Greymouth and in surrounding areas with startling frequency in the six-month period, netted Ward only £320. said Detective-Sergeant B. Wilkinson. Ward was arrested last week after offences at Reefton and Hokitika, he said. 2J Years' Gaol Mr A. P. Blair. S.M., sentenced Ward to two years’ and a half imprisonment on 16 charges of shop breaking: to two years’ imprisonment on eight charges of shop breaking with intent to commit theft; to two years' imprisonment on three charges of countinghouse breaking with intent to commit theft; to two vears imprisonment on one charg: of attempted shopbreaking: to one year’s imprisonment on three charges of unlawful conversion: to six months’ imprisonment on 17 charges of countinghouse breaking: and to three months’ imprisonoment on one charge of theft. The terms are concurrent, limiting the over-all imprisonment to two years and a half.