MAGISTRATE’S COURT Property worth $829 stolen from cars

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33533, 14 May 1974, Page 15

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Property worth $829 stolen from cars

Two men pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to two charges of unlawfully getting into a car and 11 charges of stealing articles worth $829.41 from cars at Arthur’s Pass and the Rahu Saddle about April 13. They are Maurice Albert Johns, aged 24, a horse trainer (Mr M. J. Glue), and Richard John White, aged 25, a building contractor. They were convicted and remanded on bail to May 30 for sentence by Mr F. G. Paterson, S.M. Sergeant R. H- Prouting said that the defendants stole a wide range of articles' worth $829.41 from cars parked in the Temple Basin car park and from cars ‘parked at the Rahu Saddle near Springs Junction during Easter week-end. Most Of the stolen property was later recovered by the police. It was found buried on land near where Johns lives. The articles stolen include radios, tools, spotlights, rugs, petrol, clothing, cameras, tape recorders and money. DRUG OFFENCES Barry John Latham, aged 19, unemployed (Mr G. R. Lascelles), pleaded guilty to charges Of theft as a servant of a quantity of tablets of prescription poisons, having tablets of a prescription poison in his possession, and selling a prescription poison. He was convicted and remanded on bail to May 20 for sentence. Latham is charged with stealing 2300 tablets of prescription poisons worth $12.14. the property of Kempthorne Prosser and Company, Ltd, Invercargill, between February 1 and May 3, having 370 of the tablets in his possession on May 5, and selling a prescription poison on the same date. Sergeant Prouting said that Latham was found by the police in Cathedral Square on May 5 while apparently under the influence of drugs. A number of tablets were found in his possession. He admitted having stolen these and other tablets from' his employer. Latham told the police he brought the tablets to Christchurch to sell to an associate. He had been urged by others to obtain the tablets and had been influenced by promises of large sums of money. BURGLARY Two vouths who had previously pleaded guilty to three charges of burglary were placed on probation for 18 months as part of their sentence. They are Stephen Jeffrey Humm, aged 19. an apprentice moulder, and Warner Brent Milne, aged 19, a glass blower (Mr G. R. Lascelles, for both).

Humm was also fined a total. of $l5O, ordered to pay restitu-! tion of $5.50 and ordered to j undertake 108 hours of community work. Milne was sentenced to periodic detention for eight months and ordered to pay restitution of $5.50. The Magistrate said that there was no suggestion that one of them was more responsible than the other for the commission of the offences. They both had previous convictions, and had had some form of institutional training. Their offending on this occasion was deliberate and progressive. POSSESSION OF POISON Anthony Haden Haynes, aged 18, a student was convicted and remanded on bail to May 20 lor sentence when he pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of three capsules of a prescription poison. Sergeant Prouting said that the three capsules were found in a matchbox when a search warrant was executed at the defendant’s home. The defendant admitted they were his,, and said he had obtained them to help him sleep. FIREARM IN HOTEL A man who was found with a .177 air pistol . in the White Heron Travelodge on May 12 was convicted and fined $l4O. An order was made for the confiscation of the pistol. Norman James Olive, aged 23, a freezing worker (Mr D. H. P. Dawson), pleaded guilty to the charge of having the pistol in his possession without lawful purpose. Sergeant Prouting said the police were called to the note! when the defendant was seen with the pistol in the restaurant. Olive said he was minding the pistol for a friend. He had been drinking. Mr Dawson said that there was no danger during the incident. The defendant had been given the pistol by a friend to look after. By the time the police arrived the pistol had been given to the manager of the hotel. ARSON A man, whose name was suppressed, was convicted and remanded on bail to May 20 for sentence when he pleaded guilty to two charges of wilfully setting fire to a building. The charges arose from one incident in which a garden shed, sprinkled with petrol was set align:, and another when rubbish in a bin was set alight against the door of Sedley Wells. Ltd.

RECEIVING Michael Stephen Robins, aged 18, a checker-loader, and Robert

Lachlan Grant, aged 18, an apprentice carpenter, were each. convicted and remanded on bail to May 20 for sentence when they pleaded guilty to charges of receiving. The charges arose from the, theft of $B2 worth of goods, including large toy panda bears j i and tins of soup from a container which was broken into while in the yard of a transporting firm about May 4. DISCHARGED Two students who took 17: i plates from a disused house at I j Okains Bay were discharged' [without conviction when they appeared on charges of theft. Jeffrey Keith Marson, aged 20. and Dianne Margaret Stocks, aged 20. pleaded guilty. Sergeant Prouting said that i the defendants entered the house on March 16 by opening double glass doors which had been secured with wire. They took the plates and were stopped by the complainant’s son as they left. For the defendants, Mr G. M. Brodie said they had gone for a drive on the Peninsula for the afternoon and had stopped at the house, which they thought had been abandoned. They did not think it was wanted by the owner, such was its state of disrepair. They found an assortment of old "junk” including farm machinery in the house, and took the plates from a box of broken crockery. The plates were intended for the defendant Stocks’s flat. Mr Brodie submitted there was only. ; a small, if any element of crim-1 inality in the ’ defendants* be- j haviour. EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL Graeme Desmond Leggett, aged 22, a freezing worker, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving with an excessive blood alcohol level (125 mg on August 20. He was convicted and fined $75 and disqualified from driving for six months.