Magistrate’s Court Youths Fined £25 Each For Damaging Mail-boxes

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30632, 24 December 1964, Page 7

Magistrate’s Court Youths Fined £25 Each For Damaging Mail-boxes

Two youths who tore five mail-boxes from posts and opened some of the mail deserved imprisonment, but because of their previous good records and good characters he would show leniency and impose only a fine, Mr K. H. J. Headifen, S.M., said in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Appearing for sentence on a joint charge of wilful damage and a joint charge of theft were Gerald Gilbert Lewis, aged 19, and Richard Fraser Sedan, aged 18. On the wilful damage charge each was fined £25, and on the theft charge they were convicted and discharged. Each was also ordered to make restitution of £l6 18s lid.

He took a very serious view of any interference with the mails, the Magistrate said, and in Britain or Australia the accused would have been sent to prison. He wondered if he were being too lenient. Mr R. Joyce, for Lewis, and Mr R. G. Blunt, for Sedan, sought suppression of names. The Magistrate said that though they had had liquor, both youths were sufficiently in control of their senses to open some of the mail and remove money. Though he would show some leniency he would not suppress the names. TOOK TRUCK Pleading guilty to unlawfully taking a United States Navy truck on December 23, Ronald Mark Ingram, aged 23, a clerk (Mr M. J. Glue), was convicted and fined £lO. At 12.50 a.m. yesterday a member of the United States Navy drove the truck to the piecart in Cathedral square, said Sergeant L. A. Dowell. The truck was left briefly with the motor running, and Ingram climbed in and drove to the Tivoli Theatre. Two other American servicemen saw the truck but did not recognise the driver, so they told a constable. Ingram was found at the piecart soon afterwards. Ingram had been drinking, but there was no suggestion he was unfit to drive, said Mr Glue. Ingram had no explanation to offer. CONVERTED RENTAL CAR Raymond Giles Hyde, aged 44, a painter, who failed to return a rental car valued at £5OO on the due date was convicted of converting the car and remanded on bail to December 30 for sentence. He pleaded guilty.

Sergeant Dowell said that Hyde rented the car for a day at Nelson on December 16. He i was located at Greymouth on 1 December 19. He had scraped 1 the licence label from the wind- s screen of the car so that it i was harder to Identify as a < rental vehicle. He said he in- I tended to return it on December 20, and used it to go to Reefton to locate bls son. BURGLED FLAT When liquor at a party ran . out Donald James Grieve, aged . 17, a workman, climbed through J a window of a flat next door : and stole liquor and a radio, , Sergeant Dowell said. . Grieve, who pleaded guilty to j a charge of burglary on July 8, was convicted and remanded on bail to December 30 for sentence. STOLE £3O ; Tamamon Teeba, aged 19, a soldier, pleaded guilty to steal- ; ing £3O. He was fined £7 and ordered to make restitution of £2O by instalments. Sergeant Dowell said that the offence , occurred at Burnham Military Camp. The complainant . had gone to bed fully clothed, , and a roll of notes had fallen - out of his pocket on to the , bed, where it was found by , Teepa on his return from a party. PROBATION BREACH Eileen Fay Batt, aged 20, a ; domestic worker, was convicted 1 and discharged for committing 1 a breach of probation at Dune- ■ din on November 11. She 1 pleaded guilty. FALSE DECLARATIONS Appearing for sentence on two charges of making false declarations under the Social Security Act, William Conway, aged 61, was released on probation on each charge for two years. He was ordered to make restitution of £157 9s 6d to the Social Security Department at the rate of 10s a week, and to pay £5 towards the cost of the prosecution. REMANDED Cyril Sydney McMillan, aged 44, charged with stealing £3O between November 9 and November 19, was remanded to December 29 for observation. He pleaded not guilty. Charged with receiving on November 5 18cwt of copper wire valued at £l2O from George Robert Te Awa, and others, knowing it to be dishonestly obtained, Ronald Russell Taylor, aged 38 (Mr S. G. Erber) elected trial by jury. He was remanded on bail to January 20. Alan Defoe Latham, aged 56, a retired doctor, charged with breaking and entering a house at 49 Edgeware road on December 12, was remanded to January 29 for observation. Ronald Ethelbert Tlbbott, aged 40 (Mr R. L. Kerr), charged with indecently assaulting a ; girl aged 13 in November, was remanded to January 29 for observation. FALSE PRETENCES “False pretences is a sort of criminal disease; if you have it you have to cure yourself of it,” the Magistrate said to Brian Frederick Dixon, aged 22, unemployed, when he sentenced him to nine months’ imprisonment on two charges of false pretences. On five other charges of false pretences and one charge of obtaining credit by fraud, Dixon was convicted and discharged. The term of Imprisonment is to be followed by 12 months’ probation. Dixon was also ordered to make restitution of £235 14s. The Magistrate said that Dixon had been in prison for four months in Wellington. BORSTAL TRAINING “You have had only a few months out of Borstal, and now you commit another serious offence,” said the Magistrate, to Barry William Wright, aged 17, a workman (Mr G. R. Lascelles). “In the absence of a stable home influence, you need further training.” Wright was sentenced to Borstal training on a charge of burglary on December 12.

DETENTION CENTRE Wayne Ritchie Sutherland, aged 17, a workman (Mr S. G. Erber), was sentenced to detention when he appeared for sentence on a charge of breaking and entering the premises of Blackburn Motors on December 12. FALSE PRETENCES Appearing for sentence on two charges of false pretences, Mary Catherine Geehan, aged 20 (Mr J. H. Gebble)., was placed on probation for two years and ordered to make restitution of £27 18s 6d, to work and reside where directed, and to take such treatment as might be directed. BURGLARY Kevin Charles Stillwell, aged, 19, a workman (Mr R. L, Kerr), was sentenced to two years’ probation on a charge of burglary at Sumner on December 8, and ordered to make restitution of £42 18s 2d. ASSAULT “You are very close to prison,” said the Magistrate when he fined Raymond Christie Earl Coster, aged 29, a freezing worker, £2O on a charge of assault on December 20. FINED £l5 "There is no justification for a man to use force on a woman in this way,” the Magistrate told Stewart Stanley Adamson, aged 32, a workman, when he fined him £l5 on a charge of assault on December 12. THEFT CHARGES Four charges of theft against Gary Charles Farr, aged 18, a workman, were left In abeyance on the application of SeniorSergeant G. M. Cleary, who said that Farr had been committed to Sunnyside Hospital under the Mental Health Act. • REMANDED Simon Reece, aged 17, a factory hand, was remanded to January 21 for observation on a charge of indecently assaulting a female. (Before Mr E. A. Lee, S.M.) RODE DANGEROUSLY Charged with riding dangerously on a vehicle in Bridle Path road on October 12, Graham Edward Steele was convicted and fined £4. Traffic Officer H. R. Gore said that at 7.35 a.m. on October 12 he saw the defendant riding on the running board of a car, towing a bicycle with his free hand. IGNORED STOP SIGN For falling to stop at a compulsory stop, Timothy Laughlin ’ Wenmouth was fined £5 and . ordered to attend traffic leci tures, and Richard lan Brooks and Edward Francis Johnston I were each fined £3.