MAGISTRATE’S COURT Committed For Sentence On Robbery Charge

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 6

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Committed For Sentence On Robbery Charge

After entering a conviction cm a charge of robbery against Brian Carrington, aged 36, a carpenter’s labourer, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, Mr K. H. J. Headifen, S.M., declined to deal with him summarily and sent him to the Supreme Court for sentence.

Carrington was charged with robbing Norman Gibbs, a pensioner, of £45 on February 3. He pleaded not guilty and was represented by Mr A. P. C. Tipping. Gibbs said that on February 3 he cashed a pension cheque for £7B Bs, banked £4O, and put the rest in his pocket as he intended to buysome clothes. Later at the New Railway Hotel he met a woman and agreed to go with her to her place for a cup of tea. A taxi was obtained and Gibbs, the woman, and another man whom he did not know set off for Hastings street.

On the way they stopped at a hotel and Gibbs bought four bottles of beer and a bottle of sherry. Gibbs said it was not long before the liquor was “cleaned out.” He went down a passage and the next thing he remembered was lying on a bed with the person he now knew as Carrington holding him down by the throat with one hand and going through his pockets with the other. Later at the Central Police Station Gibbs identified Carrington as he left a police van with about a dozen other men. Carrington said a man named Lyall Lewis started an argument over who was to get more beer, so he, Carrington, decided to leave. At the gate he was saying goodbye to Gibbs and a woman named Mclntosh when Lewis rushed out so he ran off. Carrington said he did not lay a hand on Gibbs or take his money. He denied a suggestion made by Sergeant V. F. Townshend that the offence was planned and that he had “double-crossed” his associates.

The Magistrate said he was satisfied that a proper identification of Carrington had been made at the police station and that Gibbs recognised Carrington as the man who robbed him in the house in Hastings street He said the prosecution had proved beyond doubt that Carrington was the person who assaulted and robbed Gibbs.

Sergeant Townshend said Carrington had 31 previous convictions for offences, including robbery and violence. FINED £5O FOR ASSAULT

A maximum fine of £5O was imposed on Anthony Lyn Smith, aged 20, a driver, when he was convicted on a charge of assaulting Allan Adie on June 4. He pleaded guilty. At 7.50 p.m. three youths were sitting at a table in a milk bar in Cathedral square when Smith approached and knocked over a soft-drink bottle, said Sergeant Townshend. Adie, the owner of the milk bar, asked what had happened and Smith said one of his mates had been called a pig. He then struck Adie on the nose and under his jaw and ran off. When identified in a crowd in Worcester street on June 6 Smith denied the assault and said he had been in the Copper Cat coffee bar at the time.

“You’re building up quite a record aren’t you?” said the Magistrate, reading from Smith’s record which included convictions for disorderly behaviour, using insulting language, fighting, drunkenness, and assault. The Magistrate: Are you looking for trouble? Smith: No, but it seems to come to me. The Magistrate: The next time you come before me you will get three months’ imprisonment FINED FOR UNLICENSED DEALING No-one seemed to be able to say whether a person could change a car once a year, or three times, or more often, said Irene Valerie Rowe, aged 44, a housewife, when she pleaded guilty to a charge of dealing in motorvehicles between November 21, 1965, and April 25 this year, while not being the holder of a motor-vehicle dealer’s licence. She was convicted and fined £2O. Detective-Sergeant D. Porteous said the Canterbury branch of the Licensed MotorVehicle Dealers* Association complained about a person living at 56 Colombo street who put 12 advertisements in local newspapers during a period of 10 months offering cars for sale. The defendant said that since disposing of a grocery business four years ago she had dealt in cars as a hobby. There was no suggestion that she is a large way of business. She had wanted a new car and was working up to it from an old car, said the defendant.

She had not intended breaking the law. CONVICTED OF BEGGING Charged with being idle and disorderly in that he begged for aims in a public place on June 11, Charles George Reede, aged 66, retired, was convicted and remanded in custody to June 20 for a report and sentence. He pleaded guilty. Detective-Sergeant Porteous said that at 7.15 p.m. on June 11 Reede was seen in Manchester street outside the People’s Palace. He approached a group of youths and asked them for money for beer. He gave the youths the impression that he had no money. Reede was given 2s, but when approached by the police, he denied having been given any money. He had a £1 note and some silver in his possession. FINED £25

Charged with riding a power-cycle in Sawyers Arms road on June 11 while under the influence of drink or drugs, George Frederick Clarke Hudson, aged 58, a plumber, was convicted and fined £25 and his licence was cancelled for three years. Hudson, who pleaded guilty, was also ordered to pay medical expenses of £3 3s. Sergeant V. F. Townshend said that at 6.10 p.m. on June 11, a traffic officer saw Hudson seated on the edge of the roadway beside his powercycle. He was under the influence of alcohol, and told the traffic officer that he had fallen off. He was later certified by a doctor as unfit to drive.

The Magistrate said that Hudson was a menace to himself and others, even though it was a power-cycle he had been riding. ILLEGAL LOTTERY

Pleading guilty by letter to a charge of conducting an illegal lottery in the public bar of the Woolston Hotel on April 27, Warren Martin, aged 39, a slaughterman, was convicted and fined £lO. THEFT OF MEAT Charged with the theft of meat valued at 8s lid, the property of Stanmore Four Square Supermarket, Ltd., on June 10, Mary Ellen Boakes, aged 53, a housewife (Mr M. J. Glue) was convicted and fined £lO and an order was made for the return of the property. She pleaded guilty. LIQUOR OFFENCES For offences under the Sale of Liquor Act, convictions were entered and fines imposed as follows, with court costs of fl 10s in each case:— Minor found in bar: Eric Henry Dally, £5; Frances Jill Studd, £5. Supplied liquor to minor: William Paul Studd, £5. On hotel premises after hours: Colin Victor Hobbs, £3. (Before Mr E. A. Lee, S.M.) SENTENCE DEFERRED ■ After hearing submisions from counsel the Magistrate stood down the case of Shirley Elizabeth Stedman, aged 25, a clerk (Mr P. F. Tempero) who was appearing for sentence on a charge that bewten February 1 and April 1 she had committed theft bv failing to account for £517 IDs. The Magistrate remaned Stedman to appear again today after saying he wanted further time to consider counsel’s submissions. Mr Tempero said that in August of last year Stedman had had matrimonial troubles and had gone to a party where she had become involved with a United States serviceman. She had since broken the association. Early this year she began getting telephone calls from a male person with an American accent asking her to go out with him and saying that he knew of the happenings at the August party. She had refused but the person had made threats against her children who were left at a day nursery. She had taken the children away from the nursery because of the threats. The caller had persisted and made threats against herself and demanded money which she was told to place in a jar near her father’s grave In the Bromley cemetery, said Mr Tempero. She had done that and had been too frightened to remain or keep a look out to see who collected the money. The calls had continued so on April 1 she had packed a suitcase and left for Timaru and then gone to Wellington. She had later returned to Christchurch. . , Persons who had worked with

Stedman had noticed the frequency of the calls and her distress, said Mr Tempero. Mr Tempero said he wanted it made clear that the United State’s serviceman with whom Stedman had been associated was not the person who had telephoned her demanding money. Stedman had always insisted that she had not taken the money for herself and if she had suffered the persecution it explained though it did not absolve her conduct. About £l4 had been repaid and Stedman would be able to pay a further £3OO at the end of July. Her husband had said he would pay the balance of the restitution. ASSAULTS John Greig Miller, aged 26, a truck driver and James Magnus Miller, aged .17, a factory worker, pleaded not guilty to separate charges that on May 7 in Barbadoes street they assaulted Peter William Dawkins. John Miller pleaded not guilty to a charge that on the same date he assaulted Kelvin Michael Smith. James Miller pleaded guilty to that charge. John Miller was convicted of assaulting Peter Dawkins and the other charge against him was dismissed. The charge of assaulting Dawkins against James Miller was also dismissed. Both were remanded on bail for sentence on June 20. STOLE SUGAR Leslie Charles David Owens, aged 28, a truck driver (Mr M. J. Glue), was fined £25 and placed on probation for one year when he appeared for sentence on a charge that on February 24 he stole a bag of sugar valued at £1 18s 5d from John Brightling, Ltd. The fine was ordered to be paid at not less than £1 10s weekly. "Thefts by employees are becoming quite common, and the Court may have to take a different view to discourage it,” the Magistrate told Owens. STOLE MILK TOKENS David Lester Humphreys, aged 26, unemployed (Mr J. Dalmer), was imprisoned for seven days when he appeared for sentence on charges that at New Brighton on April 24 and April 29 he stole money and milk tokens of a total value of £2 19s 6d. The prison term was to be followed by one year’s probation, and Humphreys was ordered to make restitution of £2 7s. UNLAWFULLY IN SHIP Judy Anne Gill, aged 17, an unemployed machinist, was placed on probation for one year with the special condition that she live and work where directed by the probation officer when she appeared for sentence yesterday on a charge that on May 27 she was found unlawfully on board the overseas ship Wellington Star at Lyttelton. The Magistrate told Gill that at 17J she faced desperate trouble if she did not change her way of life' “If you are not already so, you will become either diseased or pregnant," he said. UNLAWFUL INTERCOURSE Graeme Eric Turton, aged 18. a butcher (Mr M. J. Glue), was fined £4O when he appeared for sentence on a charge that on various dates between January 1 and April 30 he had had unlawful sexual Intercourse with a girl then aged 14, who was not his wife. BURGLARY A woman whose name was suppressed (Mr D. H. Stringer) was placed on probation for 18 months, and ordered to make restitution of £l9 17s 4d when she appeared for sentence on charges that on May 24 and May 27 she broke and entered a house with Intent to commit a crime. The Magistrate, also ordered that £1 2s 7d found in the woman’s possession should be paid to the complainant. CHARGE DISMISSED John Stewart Weir Pegg, aged 50, a clicker (Mr J. G. Leggat), pleaded not guilty to a charge that he was deemed to be a rogue and a vagabond in that, being a suspected person, he frequented Fitzgerald avenue with felonious intent on April 16. The charge was dismissed. (Before Mr H. J. Evans, S.M.) NAME SUPPRESSED A charge of assault at Annat on February 6. against a man whose name was suppressed (Mr M. G. L. Loughnan) was dismissed. He pleaded not guilty.