Youths stole 102 batteries

Press, 11 June 1977, Page 5

Youths stole 102 batteries

I Two youths who stole 102. car batteries, valued at] $5508, from Amalgamated [ i Batteries, Ltd, during the! yearly hours of May 15 ap-i ipeared for sentence in the! ! Magistrate’s Court y ester-1 I day. I Mr B. A. Palmer, S.M., ! said that John Frederick ! Calvert, aged 19, committed | the burglary to exact retribution against the battery I company, which had dis-' 1 missed him, and also to [make money from selling! I the batteries. | i Calvert’s probation report! [was unfavourable. The) Magistrate said he had to! have regard to the incidence of burglary in Christchurch, and sentenced Calvert to six months imprisonment. Calvert’s co-offender, Paul Rattray, aged 21, had no motivation apart from a desire for easy money and would have made $6OO from the sale of the batteries, said his counsel (Mr P. F. . Tempero). ' ; He was not the originator: of the plan, said Mr Tern-1, pero, and when caught co-j operated with the police. A first offender, he had lost! his job because of the bur-) I glary but his new' employers ) ■knew about his involvement,) he said. The Magistrate said the! properly was of an easily! disposable type. “I would be) justified in dealing with you) in the same way as your co-), offender,” he said, but im-)‘ posed a “substantial” term ( of five months periodic de-!, tention.

FALSE PRETENCE “If it were not for your children I would send you to prison unhesitatingly,” said the Magistrate when sentencing a woman, whose name was suppressed, on a charge of receiving a Social Security benefit by false pretence. On five occasions the woman had made false declarations that she was not working in order to gain a benefit. She earned $1263 before she left a factory job but re : ceived benefits totalling $1044 during that time. The Magistrate said that at March 31 this year SB4M had been paid out in bene- ; fits from a country with a (small population. Next year, (it was likely to be almost SIOOM. “The benefit system is a privilege,” he said. “This is a fraud against all taxpayers, particularly when

I tax rates are high.” The! (woman was sentenced to 18 (months probation, to include ’l5O hours communitv work. ENTERED CARS A youth aged 18 appeared' (on four charges of breaking I into cars, stealing property, ( of a total value of $B7O, and; on four charges of car conversion. He is Stuart John Kelly, who pleaded guilty to all (eight charges. He was convicted and remanded in custody to June 17 for a probation report and sentence. I Sergeant Caldwell said (that between June 1 and 3 (the defendant converted four cars in the Christchurch and Kaiapoi areas, of a total value of $7,700. During the same days, the defendant broke into four cars parked in Christchurch streets and stole more than $BOO worth of property, said Sergeant Caldwell. Property stolen included a camera, a radio, a binocular, a $4OO shotgun and case, a| i ski jacket, and about $BO in leash.

BURGLARY FOR DRUGS

A man aged 25 with a (psychological addiction to (anti-depressant drugs was imprisoned for six months on a burglary charge.

; He is lan Michael Macrae, | who broke into a Wellington (chemist’s shop earlier this i year and stole anti-depres-isant drugs. i The defendant had taken (drugs that he knew and ( needed and was found by the police in a delirious condition and admitted to hospital. He had been drinking sherry before taking the drugs, said counsel (Mr M. B. O’Regan). The Magistrate said that the defendant had previously committed a similar offence and although intelligent, with a good upbringing, had been pre-occupied with drugs for six years and needed to be continually tranquilised. He would be sent to Rolleston prison, where he could undertake counselling for drug dependency. (Before Mr K. W. Frampton, S.M.) CAR PARTS THEFT Two men stripped a car of various motor parts, valued at $3BO, because they could not afford to buy parts for their car, the Court was told. lan Richard Finch, aged 19, and Royden Edward Pardoe, aged 23, each pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing motor parts, of a total value of $3BO. Finch was convicted and fined $2OO. Pardoe was convicted and fined $350. Both were disqualified from driving for six months. Sergeant M. P. Caldwell said that about 2 a.m. on June 3 the defendants were driving on Clarence Road when they saw a parked car of a similar make and model as theirs. Pardoe decided to steal its bumper bar, but after taking it off the defendants decided to steel other parts, including the car’s wheels, radio, hub caps, and aerial, said Sergeant Caldwell. A female companion kept watch while the defendants removed the parts, but they were spotted by a police patrol, he said. Counsel (Mrs P. D. Gibson) said the defendants had become “carried away” on driving home from a party. ! All the motor parts had [been recovered, she said.