Luger-shape weapon used in threat

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33655, 3 October 1974, Page 2

Luger-shape weapon used in threat

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, October 2. A man visiting a towing firm about the misuse of an authorised radio-telephone channel had an air pistol pushed into his neck and was told to drive off, Sergeant W. J. Trembath said todav in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court.

Before B. O. Nicholson, S.M., was Raymond John McCartney, aged 29, a secondhand dealer, who admitted charges of receiving, wilful damage, assault, presenting a firearm, and possession of a firearm without! lawful purpose.

Mr Trembath said that on the night of October 31, 1973, a consignment of nine shotguns worth $lBOO was taken from a carriage at the Quay Street railway siding. It belonged to Daily Freightways, Ltd. and was to be transported to Mount Maunganui. Between November 1 and 30 the defendant bought a shotgun from an unknown male who told him it was “hot.” This same person, said Mr Trembath, apparently took the shotgun away and shortened the stock and barrel, making the gun 34in : long. I McCartney, he said, told the police that he knew the ;gun had been stolen because he had heard it on the radio. I He said he got it shortened “so that he could hire it out to criminals for using on jobs.” RADIO COMPLAINT Mr Trembath said that at 7 p.m. on September 28 a security officer went to Hiway Towing at Panmure about the misuse of the radiotelephone on an authorised channel of Irvine’s Towing and Crothall’s by one of the defendant’s associates,

The complainant in the ! matter followed the officer in a tow truck, which he parked across the road from the HiWays premises. Mr Trembath said the defendant and an associate pulled the complainant away from his truck. McCartney then produced an air pistol shaped like a Luger pistol and pushed it into the back of the complainant’s neck. He told the complainant to “get into his truck and drive.” He got into his truck and was about to leave when McCartney said to him “If .l see you on the road again I’ll shoot you.” Mr Trembath said that at 10.30 p.m. the same night the defendant, with three associates, went to the premises of G. A. Irvine, Ltd. at Penrose. The complainant saw them arrive and went inside and locked the building. He was accompanied by two girl friends, one an employee of Irvine’s. Mr Trembath said the complainant, fearing for their safety, immediately telephoned the police. DOOR SMASHED The front glass door and adjacent glass panel were smashed by McCartney and his associates, and the complainant took the two girls tc the back of the premises. They then hid in bushes until they heard vehicles leaving. On returning, the complainant found two tow-truck windscreens, and a side window had .been smashed and a radio telephone ripped out of one and damaged. The

total damage was estimated at $553. The police spoke to the defendant, who said that he had an air pistol, but it had not been loaded when he threatened the complainant, land he had since thrown it away. Mr Trembath said a quantity of shotgun and .22 calibre ammunition was found hidden in the defendant’s bedroom. The police also found a quantity of fuse in his garage. McCartney said that he had been given it by a well-known safe-blower, and he thought he “might do a safe job with it one day,” said Mr Trembath. The Magistrate convicted the defendant and remanded him in custody to October 9 for sentence. Mr K. Ryan appeared for the defence.