Man To Stand Trial On Receiving Charge

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31278, 26 January 1967, Page 8

Man To Stand Trial On Receiving Charge

A prosecution witness David Malcolm Barbour, a spray painter, was declared hostile by Messrs D. V. Wilson and C. B. Phillips, Justices of the Peace, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday when depositions were being taken on a charge against Alister Ambrose Bruce, aged 48, a mechanic, on a charge of receiving 18,200 cigarettes, valued at £lOB ss, between September 13 and December 20 when he knew they had been stolen.

Bruce, who was represented by Mr J. K. Fuimaono, was committed for trial in the Supreme Court. Bruce pleaded not guilty. Evidence was given by Kenneth Mackenzie Dingwall, a buyer, and Allan Granville Mein, a storeman, who are employed by Dingwall and Paulger, Ltd., that 33 cartons of cigarettes, valued at £1912, were stolen from their firm’s warehouse at 216 Antigua street on the night of September 14. Detective-Sergeant James Ashley Dawson said he executed a search warrant on a private garage in a block of flats in Salisbury street. He found three cartons of cigarettes In the back of a car in the garage On December 22 he interviewed Bruce, who admitted that he owned the car in which the cigarettes were found. He said they were in it when he purchased it from a woman about two months before. Bruce told him that he had not thought of getting in touch with the woman to ask her about the cigarettes or informing the police. Detective - Sergeant Dawson said he told Bruce that he believed the cigarettes had been stolen from Dingwall and Paulger, Ltd. Bruce denied that he was shielding any person and that he gave any cigarettes to a man named David Barpour. He was then arrested. Daphne Irene Campbell, a housewife, said she gave Bruce an old car belonging to her brother, John Bolt, who had abandoned the vehicle. There were no cigarettes in the car. David Malcolm Barbour, al

spray painter, said that on December 23 he was fined £3O on a charge of receiving stolen cigarettes from Bruce. He was a “wee bit confused” when he pleaded guilty to the charge. Barbour said he had been given some cartons of cigar ettes by a man in a hotel. Il was not Bruce. He paid 30s for the two cartons. The carton of cigarettes produced in Court looked like the carton of cigarettes he pleaded guilty to receiving from Bruce. He had not told the police about the man in the hotel. He had had a few drinks before he went to the police station and he did not nave much idea of what was going on. Barbour said he had made a written statement to the police on December 22. He had read it and signed it as correct. On the application of Detec-tive-Sergeant D. Porteous. who was prosecuting, Barbour was declared hostile by the Justices. Detective-Sergeant Porteous read to the Court the state ment Barbour had made to the police. In the statement Bar bour said he had given Bruce a hand with car repairs. Bruce gave him a carton of cigarettes. He did not tell him where they had come from. Later he had asked Bruce for another carton of cigarettes and was given one. Barbour said he believed the cigarettes might have been stolen. He did not pay for them, the statement said. Cross-examined by Detective Sergeant Porteous, Barbour said as far as he knew the statement read to the Court was his. He could not remember exactly what he told the police. Barbour said he had pleaded guilty to the receiving charge because the police had him locked up all night and took him to Court next morning. He was not aware at the time that the charge related to the accused. Bruce. Detective-Sergeant Porteous: When did you become aware that it was Mr Bruce who was mentioned in the charge? Barbour: The day they picked me up, December 22. Have you lodged an appeal against vour conviction? —No. I don’t know anything about that sort of thing. Barbour said he did not think he had changed his mind to protect the accused. Barbour said that he was given the cigarettes in a hotel by “a sihort red-headed bloke.” He (witness) was fairly near drunk when he was arrested.