Magistrate’s Court Bout of shop burglaries

Press, 6 July 1977, Page 4

Magistrate’s Court Bout of shop burglaries

Property worth $2334 and: damage to three shop win-; dows estimated at $575 was! (done by a 26-year-old hair-! • dresser during a brief bout: [of burglaries in Christchurch! ion the night of June 24, the: I Magistrate’s Court was told yesterday. ■ Ross Martin Ellerm. who appeared before Mr K. W. Frampton, S.M., was remanded in custody to July 12 for sentence. He pleaded gui’.ty to two charges of theft, two of burglary, and one charge of attempted burglary. Sergeant A. R. Bleakley said that the defendant and a companion had walked' ; into a television store on the; ’evening of June 24, picked] | up a tape deck worth $635! (and walked out with it. Ellerm then went into a I pharmacy and walked out [with two cameras worth isso. i Sergeant Bleakley said | that after closing time the ( defendant went to a second . television store, smashed a (window and grabbed two (amplifiers worth $449. Damage to the window was $3OO. i A short time later the (defendant went to another ! television store, smashed a ; window, but fled empty- ! handed when the burglar 'alarm sounded. Damage to Ithis window was $75. The defendant visited a i fourth television and radio

l: store, smashed a window, ; and took two amplifiers \ ijworth $l2OO. The extent of' (damage to the window was ..$2OO. I Sergeant Bleakley said : i that the defendant told the !.police he had been on drugs. (Before Mr B. A. Palmer, S.M.) BREAKING AND ENTRY A 17-year-old youth who 1 walked into an empty office! in the Excelsior Hotel and] 1 rifled a till was sentenced to • detention-centre training; when he appeared in court! ' yesterday. i Leonard Max Keach had' 1! earlier pleaded guilty to a ' (charge of breaking and it entering. >1 Counsel (Mr M. Gibson) [said that the offence might i • be distinguished from other t| burglaries because it was i not premeditated. It was a “spur of the moment” i offence that the defendant s had committed because he 1 had been drinking. i The door leading to the ) office that contained the till ■ had been left open, and the • defendant had found tempta- ! tion greater than resistance r when he saw the till sitting i in the office, counsel said. The defendant had lived r off the generosity of his > friends for some time, and he saw this offence as a ■ i way of contributing towards i > this generosity. I

The Magistrate said that (this type of burglary — stair-dancing — was very common in Christchurch. He told the defendant . that, at the age of 17, he should not have been drinking in the hotel at all. ASSAULT CHARGE In sentencing a 16-year-old youth to four months (residential juvenile periodic (detention, the Magistrate (said that it was the third ' time within 12 months the (defendant had appeared before the court on a charge of assault. 11 The youth, whose name! was suppressed "in view of I his age,” had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of assault, ' Counsel (Mr R. J. Murfitt) ’■ said that while the com- • plainant had not provoked > any attack, the defendant i had “felt a degree of ’ justification in meeting out t retribution of a boyish ! kind.” The defendant’s girl-friend 5 had told the defendant im- ! mediately before the incident s that the complainant was ■ “one who had bullied her at! s school several times,”! ;(counsel said. In Mr Murfitt’s opinion! lithe assault had not been; ; | serious, as “no serious in-j I i jury” had been done. ij The Magistrate said that] ;ithe defendant had appeared, i before the Children and!

Young Persons Court twice previously for the same kind of offence within the last 12 months.

“This present assault is clearly one that should never have happened,” he said. (Before Mr J. S. Bisphan, S.M.) DRUG PROBLEM “You are not in the criminal class; you have been driven to offending because of your drug addiction,” the Magistrate told Nicholas George Steentjes, who appeared before him on seven (drug charges. Steentjes had pleaded guilty to possessing two syringes and three needles for administering heroin, 131 mg of cannabis resin, and 120 cannabis seeds.

The Magistrate sentenced him to probation for 18 months on the expiration of his present term, to undertake such treatment for his drug addiction as was ordered by the probation officer, and to do 75 hours of community work. i Counsel (Mr R. J. Murfitt) (said that the defendant had (a pyschological addiction to I drugs rather than simply a (physical one. Before com(mitting the offences for (which he was in court the (defendant had a five-year (history of drug offences.