SUPREME COURT THREE YEARS GAOL FOR BURGLARY

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33069, 9 November 1972, Page 17

SUPREME COURT THREE YEARS GAOL FOR BURGLARY

Three men were gaoled for three years when they appeared before Mr Justice Haslam in the Supreme Court yesterday for sentence on a joint charge of burglary of the Totalisator Agency Board building at Hanmer Springs on September 7. The men, Ronald Wi McLean, aged 32, a shearer, Peter Kaimoana, aged 33 a carpenter, and Larry Hemi Matthews, aged 21, a plasterer, were also gaoled for a year on a joint charge of being in possession of instruments of burglary at Woodend on September 7, the terms to be served concurrently.

Mr M. J. Glue appeared for McLean, Mr E. T. Higgins for Kaimoana and Matthews, and Mr N. W. Williamson for the Crown.

Safebreaking was a form of burglary the courts dealt with severely because it carried with it grave risks to the safety of others, said his Honour. The jury rightly rejected the absurd story

with which McLean and Kaimoana tried to deceive it

The public were fortunate that the police acted with such promptitude in apprehending those involved in the burglary. All three prisoners were experienced criminals, his Honour said. SIX MONTHS GAOL Alanah Christine Nicholls, aged 21, a factory hand, was gaoled tor six months when she appeared for sentence on a charge of stealing 35 diamond rings valued at $4400, the property of W. Ruddiman, Ltd, on September 14. The term of imprisonment is to be followed by a year’s probation during which she is to live and work where directed and not to associate with persons disapproved of by the probation officer. Nicholls originally elected trial by jury but pleaded guilty to the charge on arraignment. Mr L. G. Holder, for the prisoner, said that Nicholls was strongly under the influence of a man, whom

she loved, when she commit-' ted the offence under his direction. She had now made a clean breast of the matter. She had pleaded guilty to the charge and had made a written statement implicating her co-offender. That had 1 been done on the advice of counsel.

Nicholls had been fined and given probation in the past and had exhausted the various forms of leniency open to the court, his Honour said. He accepted, up to a point, that Nicholls had been coerced into the offence. But it had been carried out with an alarming degree of boldness and skill. NINE MONTHS GAOL Jon Paul Conrad, aged 29, a commercial traveller, was gaoled for nine months when he appeared for sentence on a charge that on April 19 at Christchurch, with intent to defraud, he attempted to obtain possession of a rental car in Sydney by means of a false pretence by representing that a cheque for $3OO was a good and valid order. Mr R. F. B. Perry appeared for the prisoner.