MAGISTRATE’S COURT Youth admits part in attempted robbery

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33609, 10 August 1974, Page 8

MAGISTRATE’S COURT Youth admits part in attempted robbery

One of two youths alleged to be involved in an attempt to obtain drugs from a pharmacy assistant on June 7 pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to a charge of attempted robbery. He is Ivor Findlay; aged 19, unemployed. Findlay (Mr D. J. R. Holderness) was convicted on a charge of attempting to rob Miss Betty Cocks of a quantity of drugs of an unknown value. He was remanded in custody to August 16 for sentence.

The second person alleged to be involved in the attempt has pleaded not guilty and will appear before the Court on August 15. Findlay originally elected trial by jury on the charge, but was granted leave to change the election. Sergeant N. W. Mcßae said that Findlay and a companion entered the Somerfield Pharmacy ' about 7.30 p.m. on June 7 while Miss Cocks was on duty and j woirklng alone at the back of the , shop. I They had nylon stockings over , their heads, their parka hoods j were up, and their hands were covered. 1 Findlay stood by the door 1 while the other person went to ; the back of the shop, held out a plastic bag, and told Miss Cocks to fill! it with drugs. When she refused, and attempted to ] use the telephone, he pushed her , away and pulled the telephone wires out. i Findlay stood by the door and prevented her from leaving the j shoo or attracting attention. 1 Both youth left the shop soon afterwards without taking any- 1 thing. , 1 Sergeant Meßae said that Findlay was questioned by the police on June 7 in the presence ; of two solicitors. He denied all ; knowledge of the offences. He ' was arrested on June 13. ASSAULT IN SQUARE “This was quite a nasty and ' unprovoked assault,” the Magis- I trate said when John James ' Walker, aged 18, a workman (Mr , J. E. Burke), was sentenced on a 1 charge of assaulting Phillip David Marsh on July 24. . Walker, who had previously pleaded guilty, was sentenced to periodic detention for three months, and put on probation for one year. The Magistrate said that

Walker and a companion accosted two men in the Square. The men ran off, and one was knocked down by a car. Walker then kicked him about the ribs as he lay on the ground.

"The penalty must have some element of deterrence,” the Magistrate said. THREE CHARGES

Monty Te Moana Horua, aged 19, a workman, pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, receiving, and failing to report while on probation. He was convicted and remanded on bail to September 4 for sentence. Horua was convicted on charges of burgling the store of Amalgamated Tele-Hire, Ltd; receiving a record?player, television set, radio, and records worth $453; and failing to report at Rotorua on February 7. Radio and electrical equipment worth $387 were taken in the burglary. Horua later sold it for $250, and spent the money. FINE FOR ASSAULT Trevor William Mann, aged 26, a painter, who pleaded guilty to a charge of asaulting Alan Alexander Davison on August 1, was convicted and fined $4O. Sergeant Mcßae said that Mann had begun an argument with the complainant in a food bar. He became abusive and struck the complainant on the side of the face with his open hand. The defendant told the police he had not thought the blow hard enough to amount to an assault. ASSAULT AT PARTY Sharon Sylvia Shilcock, aged 19, a factory hand (Mr B. S. McLaughlin), who pleaded guilty to a charge of asaulting Mary Agnes Grooby on June 9, was convicted and fined $2O.

Sergeant Mcßae said that the police were called to a fight in Rosewarne Street about 5.10 p.m. The complainant was taken to hospital suffering from severe bruising of the face and head. The complainant, Sergeant Mcßae said, had been at a party and was assaulted by two girls as she was sitting outside in a car. When the defendant was questioned on July 3, she admitted punching the complainant about the head and face. She had said that the complainant had been ejected from the party and was “kicking up a fuss.” Mr McLaughlin submitted that the complainant had been making so much noise outside that the defendant and her companion had “lost their heads” and had punched her. The defendant had decided to take all the blame on herself.

EXCESSIVE ALCOHOL Douglas George Bryce, an engineer, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving on June 14 with an excessive blood-alcohol level (139 mg He was convicted and fined $75 and disqualified from driving for six months from August 23. [Before Mr P. L. Molineaux, S.M.] CHARGE DISMISSED A charge against Christopher Douglas Holdem, aged 19, an accident compensation beneficiary, of being a rogue and vagabond in that he used a false pretence — collecting money from St Albans householders in the name of the Crippled Children Society — to obtain money on July 1 was dismissed. Holdem (Mr D. J. Mackay) had pleaded not guilty. He had earlier pleaded guilty and been convicted when he appeared before Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, S.M., but a re-hearing was later granted. The Magistrate said that the charge resulted from a complaint by a St Albans resident that a youth had been making bogus charitable street collections by selling bags of pine cones for $l. The defendant’s companion had admitted telling householders that he was collecting for the Crippled Children Society. But there was no evidence, said the Magistrate, that the defendant was a party to the offence. He had told householders that he was selling the pine cones or that he was collecting for “the old people.” He had taken no money but merely orders for pine cones which he would deliver later. The Crippled Children Society was never mentioned. [Before Mr E. S. J. Crutchley, S.M.] CONCURRENT SENTENCE Peter John Heyder, aged 32, a labourer (Mr N. R. W. Davidson), was sentenced to 14 weeks imprisonment, to be served concurrently with a two-year prison term imposed in the Supreme Court yesterday on a charge of driving’ while disqualified. Heyder appeared for sentence on charges in the Magistrate’s Court on charges of driving with an excessive blood-alcohol concentration, theft, and assault. He had previously pleaded. guilty and been convicted. On the blood-alcohol charge,: Hevder was disqualified from ’ driving for three years, con-1 current with present disqualifications from driving until 1985. Mr Davidson said that the defendant had broken out of Sunnyside Hospital and assaulted his wife.