Three Arrested ROBBERY CHARGE TO BE LAID

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31831, 8 November 1968, Page 1

Three Arrested ROBBERY CHARGE TO BE LAID

Two youths and a young man, aged 16,18 and 21, two from Invercargill and one from Dunedin, were arrested by the police at a check-point just north of Kaikoura on the Main North Road at 2.45 p.m. yesterday.

the three were charged with unlawfully taking a car from Alexandra, and will appear on this charge in the Magistrate’s Court in Christchurch today.

The police will ask for a remand to Invercargill where the three will be charged, in the Magistrate's Court, with the aggravated robbery of John Francis Forde, aged 21, of 177 Margaret Street, on Tuesday night. Invercargill and Christchuurch C. 1.8. spokesmen said last evening that the three men were arrested because of a South Island police alert after the robbery of Mr Forde. He suffered severe head injuries, but his condition in the Kew Hospital, Invercargill, last evening was reported to be satisfactory. The Chief Detective at Invercargill (Mr R. Meikle) said last evening that Mr Forde was robbed of a small sum of money and a wrist watch. Mr Forde gave three youths a lift from Gore to Fairweather Road, Waikiwi. When he alighted from the car he was struck on the head with beer

bottles, and bound by assailants. He lost consciousness.

Mr Forde’s car was found, damaged, by the police near Mataura. A van taken from Mataura was recovered in Alexandra.

A damaged car taken from a panel-beater’s yard in Alexandra was seen in Timaru yesterday morning, and was reported to have gone through Waipara, 35 miles north of Christchurch, about 11 a.m.

The car stopped by Constables L. N. Snowden and M.

F. Direen at Kaikoura was damaged. The three occupants offered no resistance. Detective Sergeant B. J. Preston, of the Christchurch C. 1.8., and four other Christchurch policemen left Kaikoura with the stolen car and the three persons about 8.15 p.m.