Fire and theft in solicitors’ office

Press, 22 August 1978, Page 7

Fire and theft in solicitors’ office

A man ransacked a num- : her of professional offices in an insurance company build-! ing and then set ’fire to documents in a solicitor’s I! office after removing his wife’s file, Mr Justice Roper, and a jury* were told in the Supreme Court yesterday. Kevin Moana Jarden, aged 32, unemployed, has pleaded! not guilty to five charges of , burglary and one of arson) on June 20. !; The trial is expected to finish today. j; The Crown alleges that 1 Jarden broke into the offices! of Koller and Koller,) accountants; Blooms Costu-! miers, Ltd, Challenge Fin-; ance, Ltd. Wood, Hall and Company and R. A. Young,;; Hunter and Company, barris-i ters and solicitors, and with: wilfully setting fire to the!i office of Young, Hunter and! Company. All the offices are in the new six-storev Guard-: ian Royal Exchange Assures ance building in Hereford

Street near Oxford Terrace. ; Mr G. K. Panckhurst ! : appears for the Crown and!’ Messrs W. H. and P. B.| i'McMenamin for Jarden. ); Opening his case Mr Panek- |1 ; hurst said that evidence; ; would be given that an auto-) matic fire alarm was acti-l* vated in the insurance com-: ) party building at 1.41 a.m.l on June 20. The fire was ini ■the office of Young, Hunteri; and Company. The police discovered that 1 ' a number of offices in the[. building had been broken !1 ! into, the initial entry having i I been gained by forcing ap window in Koller and Koi-; [let’s premises. The office): records had been ransacked)] and $9O stolen. I; The offender then forced) i open the door of Blooms;. , Costumiers, Ltd, searched |; ! the office records and stole; five ski jackets, two I' 1 women’s hats and two jer-| c : seys. ( Entry* was gained to Chal-|s

Henge Finance, Ltd, by jem-i! irnying open a door. Cabinets;' [were broken open and files; [strewn about. The same was!) (done at the office of Wood,; JHall and Company. Finally, the intruder had I; I forced his way into the ' ’office of Young, Hunter andjj i Company on the fourth floor;i iwhere he went from one); ‘room to another ransacking!; (the files. It became apparent;! 'that he was looking for a ■file beginning with the letter;: ( J. Two separate fires were ; Slit in these premises. i I On June 21 the police t | searched the home of a rela(tion of Jarden’s where they i ! found a ski jacket which t [ had been stolen in the bur- t i glary. In the premises next f ■ door, where Jarden was liv- i ing, they discovered another t [ ski jacket and a jemmy I which a scientist would-say 1 had been used in the series I of burglaries. k It was the Crown’s easel that Jarden was the offender!':: as he had the motive for)s

; breaking into the office of ; Young, Hunter and Company ! where his wife’s file was (kept, Mr Panckhurst said. Kenneth Nigel Hampton, a barrister and solicitor and [partner in the firm of [Young, Hunter and Com[pany, said that, he was ! called to the office at 2.15 ;a.m. on June 20. Police and ifirermen were present when 'he arrived. There were the remains of a fire burning on the carpet and it was apparent that files had been used to fuel the blaze. The reconstruction and restoration of lost and damaged documents and records) was estimated to cost about! $25,000, Mr Hampton said.) Account records, receipts and cheque books affected by the fire, represented a loss of approximately $3BOO. Repairs to structural damage would cost about $3OOO. The largest cash box had! been forced open and about $lOO in cash and some!

f cheques were stolen, Mr ’ Hampton said. ; Stanley Charles Barker, a barrister and solicitor employed by the same firm, I said that he had found most : of his files on the floor in ■ front of his desk and the : majority had been opened. I Four files in a basket on I his desk were missing. One i of them was for Ann Patrijcia Jarden. Remnants of two ? of the files were found but : there was no trace of the other two which included I the one for Jarden’s wife, who was involved in ' a domestic dispute. Mr Barker said he had ;i spoken three times on the [telephone to a man purporting to be Mr Jarden. The - man had told him that 'he : had returned from Australia! and was trying to contact! his wife. Witness had told) the caller he could not speak ! to him because he was rep-j [resenting his wife. | The defence will open its lease today.