Mechanic Found Guilty Of Receiving Cigarettes

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31343, 13 April 1967, Page 10

Mechanic Found Guilty Of Receiving Cigarettes

After a retirement of 20 minutes, a jury in the Supreme Court yesterday found Alister Ambrose Bruce, aged 48, a motor mechanic (Mr M. G. L. Loughnan), guilty of receiving 18,200 cigarettes valued at £lOB 5s between September 13 and December 20, knowing them to have been dishonestly obtained. He was charged, in the alternative, with the theft of the cigarettes from Dingwall and Paulger, Ltd. Bruce was remanded in custody by Mr Justice Macarthur to April 19 for sentence. Mr N. W. Williamson appeared for the Crown. Kenneth Mackenzie Dingwall, a buyer for Dingwall and Paulger, Ltd., said that on September 15 he discovered the company's warehouse at 216 Antigua street had been broken into. Thirty-three cartons of cigarettes valued at about £l9OO were missing. Allan Glanville Mein, a storeman employed by Dingwall and Paulger, gave corroborative evidence. He identified two cartons of cigarettes produced as exhibits as the property of his company. David Malcolm Barbour, a spraypainter, said he was convicted in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court on December 23 of receiving stolen cigarettes. He pleaded guilty to receiving one carton of Greys cigarettes and was fined. The witness said he knew Bruce and had been to his home on several occasions early in December. They had discussed cigarettes but Bruce had not given him any. Mr Williamson was granted leave by his Honour to crossexamine Barbour as a hostile witness on a statement he had made to the police. Mr Williamson: Do you agree that in your statement you say that about two weeks earlier the accused gave you a carton of cigarettes? The witness: Yes. Did the police find this carton in your roan? —Yes.

The witness said he was not sure whether Bruce had given him another carton on December 18. He was “fairly well under the influence” when he made a statement to the police saying Bruce had given him another carton, It could be correct.

He said he was not sure whether or not Bruce had told him to destroy the carton when he had finished with it.

Detective Sergeant James Ashley Dawson, said he found the cigarettes exhibited in

Court in a 1932 model car locked in a garage at Belvedere flats, Salisbury street. He said he later interviewed Bruce who said the car was his and the cigarettes were in it when he bought it about two months earlier. Bruce said he had not thought to get in touch with the previous owner about the cigarettes. He denied selling any or giving any away. Bruce said in evidence that he bought the car for wrecking for £5. The cartons were in the car covered up when he picked it up and towed it away. “The first time I knew what they contained was when Detective Sergeant Dawson went with me to the garage.” He said he had taken no notice of the contents of the cartons, he had too much other work to do. He presumed they had old clothing or something in them. He denied giving a carton of cigarettes to Barbour on any occasion. He said he might have given him a packet for some favour.