ROBBERY IN HOTEL

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29907, 22 August 1962, Page 9

ROBBERY IN HOTEL

Two-Year Gaol Sentence

“It was clearly a concerted effort to rob this rather unwell and short-sighted man of his wallet by force,” said Mr Justice Richmond in the Supreme Court yesterday, sentencing Alan Alexander Hamilton, aged 32, a workman (Mr M. G. L. Loughnan). to two years' gaol for robbery

Hamilton robbed William Thomas Desmond Cowlishaw. aged 62, retired, of his wallet and £24 in the Excelsior Hotel on June 2.

His Honour said he could not be sure what view the jury took of Hamilton’s part in the robbery, but he would take the view that it con-

sidered his part to be one of assisting by crowding in against Cowlishaw. His Honour said the very bad records of the other three men certainly suggested that they, rather than Hamilton, took the wallet and applied force to the elderly man’s throat. But Hamilton’s own record did not help him at all That , he continued to associate with those men offset what Mr Loughnan had said about Hamilton's attempt to lead a better life with better companions since he came out of prison two years ago “The regrettable fact is that you've been prone to robbery with violence,” said his Honour, “particularly when you've been drinking."