Prison term for heroin smuggling

Press, 11 January 1978, Page 5

Prison term for heroin smuggling

A youth who smuggled nerom into Addington Prison tO a remar >d prisoner last month was sentenced to three months jail by Mr F. w. Paterson, S.M., when he appeared for sentence in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. , n . addition to imposing the jail term, the Magistrate placed Ronald Tokoarangi Te Maari, aged 19, on probation for 12 months for what he described as “a misguidedloyalty type of offence.” Last week, Te Maari, an unemployed clerk, pleaded guilty to supplying heroin to Sidney Hirini Rehutai on December 29. A small quantity of heroin, which was allegedly bought for $2O, had been concealed under a dressing on Te Maari’s leg when he visited Rehutai in prison. During the visit the dressing was removed and transferred to Rehutai’s foot. Later it was found behind a heater during a routine search. Te Maari was convicted and remanded in custody j until yesterday. The Magistrate yesterday told Te Maari that any supply of a class A drug was a very serious offence and that to supply it in such a deceitful way to a prison inmate added to the gravity of the offence.

He said the penalty had to include a discouraging element in order to show others what society thought of a particular type of offence.

BREAKING, ENTERING A 21-year-old woman charged with assisting in the attempted breaking and entering of two pharmacies on December 18 was convicted and released on probation for 18 months. Wai Keefe, an unemployed shearer’s assistant, who pleaded guilty to the offences which were committed with three other persons, was also ordered to do 100 hours of community I work. During the attempted burglaries on pharmacies in Sumner and in Ferry Road, the Court had been told, the defendant acted as a lookout in a vehicle. ASSAULT CHARGE “I take a strong view of I this type of offending,” the | Magistrate told William I Rata Reihana, when he ap-i peared for sentence on a; charge of assaulting a 68- : year-old pensioner. The Magistrate fined Rei-' hana $2OO, of which $5O will be paid to the complainant, Donald Mansfield Crawford. Reihana’s driving licence was cancelled for three months, and he was released on probation for 12 months. The assault occurred after a near-collision between the complainant’s car and another vehicle driven by the defendant’s brother. “You joined in what can only be described as a bullying, disgraceful episode,” the Magistrate said. The pensioner, said the Magistrate, was accompanied by his wife, who was also struck by another youth in the car in which the defendant was riding. THREW BOTTLE A youth in a car admitted throwing a part-filled beer bottle at the head of a motor-cyclist in Fitzgerald Avenue, the Court was told.

Stewart Donald Anderson, aged 20, an apprentice fitter and turner, pleaded guilty to the assault charge which oclat 11.10 p.m. on November I 10. 1 Sergeant K. J. Hurndell : said that the complainant, Menzies Macdonald, had suffered facial bruising as a result of the bottle’s hitting the side of his crash helmet. The defendant, a passenger in the car, had alleged that the complainant had earlier spat in his face while they were waiting at a traffic intersection. While it appeared there was some provocation, the Magistrate said, it was no excuse for such “animallike” behaviour. He convicted Anderson and fined him $75.

RECEIVING CHARGE Stephen lan Anderson, aged 17, unemployed, was convicted and remanded to January 17 for sentence when he appeared on a charge of receiving a motorcycle valued at $5OO. On December 13 the motorcycle owned by Alistair James Gibson, was reported to the police to have been stolen. On January 9 it was found in the possession of the defendant in Estuary Road, said Sergeant Hurndell. He said Anderson admitted buying it for $9O from a person at a party in Olliviers Road and that he knew it had been stolen. ASSAULT CHARGE

Because he thought a man was leaving the hotel with someone else’s girl-friend, Stephen Curtis Veale followed the man outside and broke his nose. Veale, aged 18, unemployed, pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting Kenneth Jones outside a city hotel on November 10 where he and some friends had been drinking.

Sergeant Hurndell said the complainant went to the hotel to take home his wife, who was with the defendant and his friends. Imposing periodic detention for three months, the Magistrate said it was yet another example of a young man resorting to “animal i violence” and causing injury to an innocent person.

DROVE DANGEROUSLY Barry Samuels, aged 21, a storeman, drove a car along a pavement in Manchester Street on December 30, causing pedestrians to take evasive action and nearly running down a young girl, the Court was told. Samuels, who pleaded guilty to unlawfully taking the "motor vehicle" and to driving in a dangerous manner, told the police he only wanted “to find the way home,” said Sergeant Hurndell. He said Samuels took the car from where it had been parked outside the M.E.D. building and drove it diagonally across the road and along the pavement at 10 k.p.h. before a brake cable fault caused it to stop. The Magistrate, who described the incident as “an appalling set of circumstances” convicted Samuels and sentenced him to four months periodic detention. He also prohibited him from holding or obtaining a driving licence for six months.