Gaol for theft

Press, 4 August 1976, Page 5

Gaol for theft

A man who took nearly $3500 in a series of planned burglaries, some of them from his employer, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment by Mr B. A. Palmer, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Paul Leonard Hurrell, a maintenance fitter, had pleaded guilty to five charges of burglary and two charges of receiving. The burglaries were of the Education Department bulk store and the warehouse of Fletcher Merchants, Ltd, for whom Hurrell used to work on the night shift. Hurrell had a special key cut for entering Fletcher’s warehouse. All the burglaries had taken place during the last six months. Counsel (Mr P. D. Gibson) said that the defendant’s offending had started in a small way but that he had become increasingly greedy. The defendant had been most co-operative, in restoring the stolen items to the correct owners, and compensation of only $152 was sought. Hurrell had a good trade background and a good work record, and he was appearing in Court for the first time of his life at the age of 30, the Magistrate said. “But there is a substantial amount of property involved and the offences occurred over a long time. They were premeditated, calculated and they abused the position of trust your employer put you in,” he said. “Burglary under any circumstances must be deterred by the courts, and especially where it is accompanied by an abuse of trust,” said the Magistrate. (Before Mr F. G. Paterson, S.M.) DANGEROUS DRIVING When a police patrol had seen a motor-cyclist travel through an intersection on Ferry Road with one wheel high in the air, they gave

chase and followed the motorcyclist at high speeds until he turned into his own drive, the Court heard.

Gordon Paul Kirkman, aged 20, unemployed, pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, failing to stop when required to do so by the police, and driving while disqualified. He was convicted and remanded to August 10 for sentence. Sergeant J. Dobbs said that at 2.15 a.m. on May 21, the defendant had stopped at traffic lights in Ferry Road. When the lights had turned green, Kirkman had ridden across the intersection with only one wheel on the ground, the other high in the air. The police had followed him and had asked him to •’P-

The motor-cyclist had then speeded up and turned his lights out, and the police had followed him at speeds of up to 80 km/h, Sergeant Dobbs said. Kirkman had crossed several interesections without slowing down or turning on his lights and had ridden on the wrong side of the road on several occasions.

When interviewed, he had refused to give his name or address and had denied being the rider of the motor-cycle.