SUPREME COURT Scrap-metal Buyer Charged With Copper Wire Theft

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32060, 7 August 1969, Page 11

SUPREME COURT Scrap-metal Buyer Charged With Copper Wire Theft

Accused of being a party to the offence by aiding and abetting others, Henry Clarence Sullivan, aged 34, a fore-man-buyer for a scrap-metal firm, Copper Refining and Chemical Company, Ltd, stood trial in the Supreme Court yesterday on a charge of the theft on May 29 of 512 lb 9oz of copper wire, valued at $220, the property of the Post Office. Sullivan (Mr P. G. S. PenUngton) who pleaded not guilty, was alleged to have aided and abetted two men, Kenneth McDonald and Malcolm Bottle to commit the crime by knowingly lending them a quantity of metal ingots to falsify the weight of a truck on to which the wire was to be loaded. I By being a party to the theft, Sullivan was himself guilty of it, submitted the Crown Prosecutor (Mr N. W. Williamson) to the jury. Mr Williamson especially referred the jury to a passage in a statement made by Sullivan to the police: “I know the McDonalds and Hamiltons have been borrowing ingots to alter weights with. They have altered weights for their benefit or gain from the people they have been buying off. The only gain that I got was the increased production of the firm.” The trial, before Mr Justice Wilson, will continue today, when the evidence of the investigations made by two police witnesses, Detective Sergeants A. B. Dalzell and T. K. Watkins, will be given. Crown’s Case The Crown’s case, as presented in evidence by 16 witnesses was that the 5121 b 9oz of copper wire was stolen by McDonald and Bottle, who put nine ingots under the seat of a truck which was weighed before loading the wire at a Post Office depot in Matipo Street, Riccarton. But during the loading, the ingots were removed and put in the boot of a car, so that an extra 5121 b 9oz of wire was able to be loaded aboard the

truck without Post Office officials being aware of it The truck, according to the evidence was first weighed to ascertain its true weight, irrespective of what might be written on it, and reweighed after loading, so that the difference was the weight of scrap metal required to be paid for.

Evidence was given by Alfred Henry Eric Dalton, an inspector of weights and measures, that when nine ingots handed to him by the police were weighed at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, they recorded 5121 b 9oz. Another witness, Edward Henry Lily, a foreman storeman at the Post Office depot in Matipo Street, gave evidence that McDonald and Bottle arrived at the depot on the morning of May 29, McDonald—who had made, a successful tender for the wire at 43c per lb—driving a red Chevrolet truck and Bottle a green Jaguar motor-car. Witness said he noticed that the Jaguar car was twice moved, in positions near the truck, during the loading of the wire. Company Employees’ Evidence Peter Robin Williams, an employee at the Copper Refining and Chemical Company, said that be had three or four times seen Sullivan come into the furnace room at the factory with McDonald and Bottle in order to get ingots, which all three would load on to pallets or skids. Under cross-examination by Mr Peniington, Mr Williams agreed that it was part of the accused’s work to take ingots, destined for sale, from the furnace room to another part of the premises, and that it would not therefore be unusual to see him with ingots. Nor would it be unusual, witness agreed, to see the accused about the premises with McDonald and Bottle, as they were “very regular customers” of the firm, selling it a lot of metal. Peter Ferris Jones, Christchurch manager of the Copper

Refining and Chemical Company—which witness said was formerly New Zealand Metal Smelters, Ltd—said that as a result of a telephone call from the police last December, he Instructed the accused and the staff that ingots were not to be lent out. The police had informed witness that the firm’s Ingots had beenfound aboard a truck in a ferry steamer going to Wellington. Witness, at the time, had discussed the matter with the accused, who had said he had lent the ingots to a Mr Terrence McDonald, as there was a possibility of a sale for them. Witness, to Mr Williamson, said that Kenneth McDonald and Malcolm Bottle ’had been paid by his company; on May 29, 41c per lb for copper-wire scrap. Cross-Examination Cross-examined by Mr Pepiington on the matter of loan of ingots, Mr Jones agreed that a company inward-goods register showed, on May 3, a loan of 24 ingots to “K. McDonald,” aqd that on Mgy 5 and 6 Witness himself, dh the same page, had made pur, chase-order notations about other entries. Mr Jones was still under cross-examination when the trial was adjourned to this morning.

Decree Nisi In Divorce On an undefended petition for divorce, heard before Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court yesterday, James Hamilton Harris, a flight-con-trol officer (Mr A. Hearn), was granted a decree nisi against bis wife, Maureen Alice Harris, on the ground of two years separation. Winding-up Petition A petition for the windingup of Renown Caterers, Ltd (Mr I. J. S. Reeves), brought by Jensen and Harwood, Ltd (Mr R. F. B. Powell), was further adjourned, by consent, to August 20.