Conviction for wool theft

Press, 27 March 1979, Page 4

Conviction for wool theft

PA Napier A 12-day Supreme Court trial has ended at Napier with the conviction of a former wool manager on 36 charges of theft as a servant. The jury took just over four hours to find Richard Andrew Carrier, aged 49, guilty. He had denied charges of stealing the wool — 460 bales estimated to be worth more than SI 13,000 — from Williams and Kettle, Ltd, between June, 1971 and February last vear.

The Crown alleged that Carrier sold the wool to a local woolbuyer for personal gain. The Court was told that Carrier said he had been

selling wool on behalf of a “special client” who wanted to avoid tax. Carrier at first named a man as being the client. He later withdrew that claim, but maintained the sales were on behalf of a special client whom he refused to name. The Crown maintained that his client, referred to throughout the trial as “Mr X,” did not exist. The Crown called 22 witnesses. The defence did not call evidence. Mr Justice White remanded Carrier in custody for sentence in the Supreme Court at Wellington about March 30.