Fire engine has petrol stolen

Press, 22 July 1976, Page 4

Fire engine has petrol stolen

Two youths who syphoned petrol from the Leeston Volunteer Fire Brigade’s fire engine one night were told that their crime had “outraged the community” by Mr N. L. Bradford, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The Magistrate was referring to Harley Mark Winchester, aged 17, a farmhand at Leeston, and Alan John Johnson, aged 19, a forest worker, also from Leeston.

Winchester was charged with burglary of the fire station and Johnson was charged with aiding and abetting him in the burglary. They had pleaded guilty. “Whether or not you two emptied the tank of the engine, the mere fact of removing petrol from such a vehicle is an enormous offence,” the Magistrate said. "There was enough petrol left to get the engine started, should it have been called out that night to an emergency, but it would have run out of petrol within two or three miles,” he said. “Then, another engine from another district would have had to be called in. Property and life could have been in danger.” The Magistrate said that he had given serious thought to depriving the two youths of their liberty by sentencing them to Borstal training, but he had decided instead to leave them in the com-

munity with a heavy burden to discharge. Both were sentenced to 18 months probation, with a special condition that they perform 200 hours community work each, and both were disqualified from driving for two years. “I note with satisfaction that part of the community work will be directed towards the maintenance and upkeep of the Leeston Volunteer Fire Brigade,” the Magistrate said. Two other charges against Winchester — that of wilfully damaging two rose bushes and disorderly behaviour at the Ellesmere Maternity Hospital — arose out of the same night’s work. Winchester had driven the car, after taking the petrol from the fire engine, round to the maternity hospital and up the drive, hitting two rose bushes as he went. He was fined a total of $75 on these charges. Counsel (Mrs J. Anderson) said that both youths denied taking more than four gallons Lorn the fire engine. In the police summary, it had been alleged that they had syphoned more than this, emptying the tank.

Mrs Anderson suggested that someone else had come into the fire station after the two youths and had taken the rest of the petrol. The door to the fire station was always kept unlocked, she said.