Man Gaoled For Flood Looting

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30395, 20 March 1964, Page 1

Man Gaoled For Flood Looting

(New Zealand Press Association)

OPOTIKI, March 19.

Anyone who looted and gained from another’s misfortunes was completely beyond the pale, said Mr L. N. Ritchie, S.M., in the Opotiki Magistrate’s Court today when two men appeared before him on charges of theft allegedly committed during the disastrous flooding in the town on March 11.

One of them, George Rewita, aged 53, a workman, the father of 13 children, pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing a bolt of material valued at £lO and was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment. The other, Peter Ngamokl, a clerk, pleaded not guilty to a charge of stealing a man’s singlet valued at 7s 6d.

Mr Ritchie, “but anyone who loots and gains from another’s misfortunes is completely beyond the pale.” In the case against Ngamoki, Constable R. Thomson said he had seen Ngamoki in the doorway of the shop of W. H. Dick, Ltd., putting articles that were floating through the open door, over his arm. In evidence, Ngamokl said he had been salvaging goods. He had put some in a place of safety, but when he returned he found they were gone.

After evidence had been called, the Magistrate dismissed the charge. Sergeant C. E. W. Carter, who prosecuted, said a constable had seen Rewita carrying a quantity of clothing and the material, the property of a person unknown, when the flood was at its height. When the police called out to him, Rewita had appeared to immerse the bundle in flood waters, said the sergeant. “Maybe there are others more guilty than you,” said

He then put a box of goods in a friend’s car. He had returned this box and its contents to the police on March 16. The Magistrate said the prosecution was justified. Ngamoki’s story might not be probable, but it was possible, he said, dismissing the charge.