Soldier To Get Refund After Court Martial

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30763, 29 May 1965, Page 21

Soldier To Get Refund After Court Martial

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 28. A sergeant of the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment at Papakura, who was recently fined £4O in a district court-martial for losing war material, will have his money returned after a Magistrate’s Court hearing yesterday. Mr L. G. H. Sinclair, S.M., said when convicting Alan Richard Blackmore, aged 18, a bushman, of Maraetai, on a charge involving an Army rifle:—“l hope it weighs

heavily on your conscience that because of your actions another man has got into trouble.”

He sentenced Blackmore to 18 months’ probation for breaking into the Ardmore military range workshops on or about February 20 with intent to commit a crime. Blackmore pleaded guilty. Senior-Sergeant K.' Evans said the Army discovered that the range had been broken into and an F.N. rifle, valued at £5B 8s 7d had been stolen. The camp commandant at Papakura, Lieutenant-Colonel R. H. Smith, said later that a £4O stoppage of pay imposed on Sergeant Gilbert Henry Cross would be refunded. But the rest of the courtmartial’s sentence—loss of two years’ seniority' and a reprimand—would stand. “The charge was loss by neglect, and the findings stand,” he said. “The soldier committed an offence, but will not be asked to pay for something that has been returned."