Undercover policeman threatened in bar

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 7

Undercover policeman threatened in bar

An undercover constable had arranged for the police to buy 45 stolen diamond rings — valued at $13,000 — for $2OOO in a transaction conducted by a jeweller acting as a go-between in the car park of the Russley Hotel, Mr Justice Somers and a jury were told in the Supreme Court at Christchurch yesterdav

rttter deliberating threequarters of an hour, the jury found Gavin Scott Brydon, aged 25, a moulder, guilty on a charge that on April 26 he aided James Michael Thomas in disposing of 45 diamond rings valued at $13,700, when he knew they had been stolen, and thereby committed the crime of receiving. His Honour remanded Brydon in custody to December 15 for sentence.

Mr D. J. L. Saunders appeared for the Crown, and Mr M. J. Glue for Brydon. who pleaded not guilty. Amy Gertrude Lamb said that in April this year she was manageress of the shop of Wallace Lamb, watchmaker and jeweller, in Trafalgar Street, Nelson. About 5.30 a.m. on April 22 the police called her to the shop, and she found that five pads of diamond rings had been taken from a side window. A total of 51 rings, valued about $14,000, had been stolen.

Later the police returned to her 45 rings valued about $13,000, Mrs Lamb said. On the application of Mr Saunders, his Honour made an order that the real name of an undercover constable, known as Harry Harvey, not be disclosed, and nothing be published which might lead to his identification. Mr Saunders said that criminals had threatened the life of the constable on several occasions, the last of which was the previous week, but the threats were not connected with this case.

The undercover policeman said that he had been engaged in plain-clothes under-

cover inquiries in Christchurch from January to September this year. He worked under the direction of Detective Cartwright. Early in February he met Brydon at the Ramada Hotel. On April 26 Brydon came up to him in the bar and asked him if he could “shift” $14,000 worth of rings. Witness replied that he was sure he could, but he would have to get someone to look at them first. Brydon took him to a booth at the rear of the bar and introduced him to James Michael Thomas. At first Brydon sat between them. Witness agreed that if he could get the money he would buy the rings from Thomas, j After contacting Detective Cartwright, he arranged for the rings to be sold to the police. Thomas was arrested. When he saw Brydon at the Ramada Hotel on April 30 Brydon accused him of being a “topper” — a person who informed on his friends to the police. There was an argument, and Brydon left the hotel after saying that he was going to find out one way or another if witness was a topper or a copper.

There were subsequent meeting with Brydon when he accused witness of being a topper, and witness warned him of the consequences if he continued to call him a topper. At one such meeting there was another person with Brydon who said that he would kill witness if he ever found out that he was a policeman. Brydon said that witness would not be so cheeky to the bar if he were a policeman.

On May 19 the policeman again saw Brydon at the Ramada Hotel. He gave Brydon a cigarette. Just after he lit it Brydon said: “You reckon you're not a copper,” and witness snatched the cigarette out of his mouth.

To Mr Glue, the policeman

said that he had given evidence at four Supreme Court trials in Christchurch, and still had to give evidence at a further one. He had given evidence at 10 hearings in the Magistrate’s Court, and in more than a dozen other cases persons who had been prosecuted as a result of his undercover activities had pleaded guilty.

He admitted that there were times when he had to “drink a fair bit to keep up with the team in the Ramada.” He disagreed that that made him confused in some of the notes of events he made later.

As part of his duties he had let it be known around the hotels that he would “shift hot gear” (buy stolen property), and was interested in drugs. Brydon’s group was not very interested in drugs, however.

When Brydon asked him if he was a policeman, he naturally lied. He had told Brydon he had an interest in an illegal crayfishing business which “was ripping off the Government.” That was not true. Witness denied that he was twisting his evidence to make it worse for Brydon.

Detective David John Cartwright said that he started an operation to recover a large quanity of rings which had been stolen in Nelson. A city jeweller, who was helping the police, went to the Russley Hotel. Later the same day the jeweller was given $2OOO, which was handed over to a person in the car park of the hotel.

The jeweller handed witness 41 rings, which, with the four rings he had received after the first visit to. the hotel, meant that a total of 45 rings had been recovered.

To Mr Glue, Detective Cartwright said that Michael Thomas was arrested at the Russley Hotel on April 27, and was charged with re-

ceiving the rings which were recovered. In a written statement to Detective Peter Nelson Gardiner, Brydon said he had been on an all-day pub crawl on April 26, and he arrived at the Ramada Hotel about the middle of the afternoon. “Jimmy Thomas” was there, and had asked him if he knew of anyone who could dispose of diamond rings. Thomas had been living in Nelson, and Brydon said that he had read in the paper that there had been a big jeweller’s shop robbery there. He introduced Thomas to the undercover policeman, because he had told him previously that he could “handle hot gear.” Brydon said in evidence that he had introduced Thomas to the policeman, but that he had said nothing about diamond rings. From his conversation he had believed that the policeman was a receiver.

He took no part in the conversation. The two were whispering to each other, he said, and he “just carried on drinking.” He first met the policeman in the Dominion Hotel in February, Brydon said. He had not been working for three or four months and the Dominion opened early. He wanted to give up the unemployment benefit and get a job because he was being ridiculed for being out of work. In his final address to the jury, Mr Glue said that there was no dispute that Brydon had introduced Thomas to the undercover policeman, but it was disputed that he had done so for the purpose of disposing of stolen property. The defence did not say that the policeman had lied, but that he was mistaken. The only appropriate verdict was one of not guilty.