Supreme Court Home ‘shopping list’ conspiracy denied

Press, 15 October 1976, Page 6

Supreme Court Home ‘shopping list’ conspiracy denied

A girl worked in the office of a real estate agent, and a young man, allegedly conspired to draw up a "burglar’s shopping list” of houses containing colour television sets and other valuable goods.

However, the girl, and an a.ieged accomplice had been arrested before any of the properties had been broken into. Mr Justice Roper and a jury were told in the Supreme Court yesterday. Douglas Sydney Low, aged 22, unemployed, and Christine Allison Kitnm. aged 18. have pleaded not guilty to a joint charge of conspiring to commit burglary . Mr C B Atkinson appears for the Crown, Mr S. R. Mali ng for Low and Mr N. R. W. Davidson for Kimm.

Opening his case, Mr AtKinson said that the two accused conspired to commit

burglaries of houses by the use of skeleton keys and other means. They were arrested before they cr ‘d carry out their plans.

When the police executed a search warrant on the flat occupied by Low' they found three skeleton keys which would open a wide range of locks. They also found a list of houses, their addresses and the valuable propertyinside — such as colour television and stereo sets.

"The Crown says that this was a burglar’s shopping list. Lout’s explanation for possession of the list was incredible, and members of the jury will have no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that Low intended to break into the properties on the list,” Mr Atkinson said.

Most of the properties and their addresses on the list had been written out by

Kimm, who had also put annotations alongside each house as to the type of property inside. Kimm worked for a firm of real estate agents and had used the knowledge she obtained in the course of her employment to compile the list. It included the addresses of the firm’s clients who had put up their C roperties for sale, the omes of employees of the firm, and one of her relatives whom she had visited a short time before. There was no doubt that Kimm had made up the list of properties so that Low could burgle them, said Mr Atkinson.

An order was made suppressing the name of the firm for which Kimm worked.

Giving evidence, a principal of the firm said that Kimm had been employed by his company for about a The witness gave details of several properties which had been offered for sale through his firm while Kimm had been employed there. Each house had a listing card made out for it which had details of room size, a general description of the property, the price, valuation and the pla. e where the key was hidden so that salesmen could show clients over the property. Shown a piece of cardboard. the witness said that it had on it several addresses in Kimm’s handwriting. She had access to the listing cards, and would also have known when staff members were away from their homes.

Kimm said in evidence that she had written all but four of the addresses on the piece of cardboard when she worked for a real estate agent. She had been forced to write them down early in April by a Maori named Jimmo who visited her flat.

Jimmo had asked her where she worked, and when she told him he demanded that she write down some addresses for him. When she refused he started punching her so she looked up some addresses in the telephone book wrote them down and gave them to him. The trial will end today.