The Courts Immediate payment of fine ordered

Press, 2 December 1978, Page 5

The Courts Immediate payment of fine ordered

A salesman, aged 19, convicted of stealing cheques! *nd a sum of money — a total value of $1044 — the Property of his employer. Was lined $5OO by Mr J. S. Bisphan, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. The Magistrate told John Cowan that in default of the immediate payment of the fine he would spend three months in prison. Cowan, who pleaded; guilty, committed the[ offence between March 71 and May 26 while he was I employed as a clerk by W. [ and R. Jack, Ltd. Sergeant C J. Shanahan! said part of the defendant’s! duties involved receiving: payments by mail from the firm’s customers. After: Cowan left the firm a check; was made at his address; where his bank deposit book; was found. Deposit entries corresponded to amounts! 1 missing from the company’sl ’ accounts. Sergeant Shannahan said! that when the defendant re-i ( turned to Christchurch from', Sydney, where he now lives; and works, he had contacted! the police and admitted the;, theft. I, The total amount had: since been repaid to the] company by the defendant’s! parents. Counsel (Mr M. J. Glue)!, said there were some “very j. unusual” aspects in the caseji While he realised that theftl 1 as a servant was a very[ ■ serious matter the unusual i ■ aspect was that the offence h had been committed by theii defendant at a time he was|t under considerable duress. j He said the defendant had Ji co ne under pressure from[ i other persons who had de- j < manded a sum of money.[ 1 Cowan had not been in p trouble before. (< The Magistrate said theft || as a servant was the type of''

ofience which normally ! carried a term of periodic , detention or a prison sentence. In the circumstances periodic detention would be the most appropriate course of action, but a the defendant was now living and ’ [working in Australia he was . prepared to take the unusual (Step of imposin fo a fine. , A request for the suppres- j [sion of the defendant’s name ■ I was. declined. CAR THEFTS ALLEGED Harold Bartlett Ingram, i aged 27. a., unemployed , | driver, was remanded on I ’bail of $lOOO, with two sui reties of the same amount, I to January 11 on two 1 ! charges of stealing cars. I Ingram is charged with ) , stealing a 1973 car, valued 1 at $3500, the property of t Mauger’s Rental Cars, Ltd, i and a $974 station waggon, I valued at $5OOO, the proper- t [ ty o f Rhodes Rental Cars, < • Ltd. ! The alleged offences were : committed on or about No- ] vember 9. 1 The defendant was ordered'! ■to report daily to the police It [while on bail. ’(Before Mr F. G. Paterson, ir S.M.) ARMS CHARGES DENIED [ \ A member of the Black [s Power gang who appeared ; s i on two charges of possess- [ t [ing- offensive weapons wash remanded to December 14 p [for a defended hearing. He f [was allowed bail of $750, s i with two sureties of the 1 ! same amount, and was [ordered to report daily to i | the police. i Shane Piripi Turner, aged i 124, is charged with posses- e I ing two chair legs, a length I [of timber, a chain, and a v knife on November 29; and I ■with possessing two rifles c ! except for a lawful and proI per purpose on November r 27. t

(Before Mr .K W. Frampton, S.M.) STAMP THEFT A man who stole stamps, valued at $530, the property of Ken Smith, was placed on probation for one year and ordered to do 150 hours of community work when he appeared for sentence. The Magistrate said Andrew Raymond James Te Namu, aged 21, unemployed, had carried out the thefts after “deliberate planning” and that any future convictions for dishonesty would . almost certainly land the defendant in prison. ASSAULT PROVED A defendant who had his head pushed through a plate-glass windbreak surrounding the porch of a flat in New Brighton a month ago denied starting the fight which provoked the incident. Vivian Stephen White, aged 23, unemployed, was charged with assaulting lan Bryce Lane on November 1. White said that the complainant, Lane, had hit him first, when he went to the [flat where his cousin, KathIryn Leonie Schlaadt, was hying with Lane, to collect money on a debt. Two of his friends, who went with him to the flat, supported his story. They said that Lane had struck the first blow and had then pushed White through the glass windbreak twice; the first, time his whole body, and on the rebound, his head. The Magistrate said that it was a matter of which witnesses were the most ' credible. There were inconsistencies in the evidence of White and his friends, whereas he had found Mr Lane and Miss Schlaadt credible. White was convicted and remanded to appear for sentence on December 7.