Youth guilty of Lyttelton burglary

Press, 15 April 1980, Page 7

Youth guilty of Lyttelton burglary

Burglars, who stole the safe from the office of the Waterfront Credit Union, bashed a hole in the door big enough to walk through, Mr Justice Roper grid’a jury were told in the High Court yesterday. After deliberating for an hour and a half the jury found Peter Ruhi, aged 20, unemployed, ' guilty ’ on' a charge of burglary of the Waterfront Industry Commission in the Centennial Hall. Lvttelton. ■ Mr N. W. Williamson appeared .for the Crown, and Mr S. C. Barker, and Miss M. A. Gifford for Ruhi. The defence called no evidence.

Opening his case Mr Williamson said that on the night of August 15, the Centennial Hall at Lyttelton was broken into and a safe containing $l3OO was stolen. Next day the police found some of the contents of the stolen safe scattered around the garden of a propertv in Marine Parade where Ruhi was living. Charred receipts and other documents which had been in the safe wree in a fireplace in the. house and the safe was found in a nearbv garden. On August 17 Ruhi’s car was located and the police found sawdust and crystals from the lining of the safe in the boot.

Cmrelius Anthony Bakkness, a caretaker-cleaner, I employed by the Waterfront; Commission, said he was working late shift on August 15 in the Centennial Hall' when he saw two men inspecting the building about 8 p.m. One man asked witness if there was a certain man in the building and witness told him that there was nobody there. Mr Bakkness said that the Mr Barker said. two men walked to the back of the building and an attempt was made to open_a

window by unfastening a latch.

I The police were called and arrived about. an hour later. The two men had walked across the railway yard : to the station. He finished work at 11 p.m. and the building -was securely locked When he left, Mr Bakkness said.

Pamela May Jackman, manager of ..the Waterfront Credit- Union, gave evidence that the stolen safe belonged to her employer. The burglars left a hole in the office door big enough to walk through. Joseph Braendt, a taxi driver, said that’ in the early hours of August 16 he picked up Ruhi at the bottom of a gangway of a ship at Lyttelton. He had been drinking. Ruhi was taken to an address in Randolph' Street.

Detective Constable P. W. H. Hunter said that Ruhi told him he had been living in Marine Parade with Sam Logan for about three weeks. He admitted that he had bean at a hotel and a party on a boat at Lyttelton on the night of the burglary. Ruhi . denied committing the burglary at the Credit Union office. He had not taken his Zephyr car to Lyttejton because it had broken down. Ruhi was asked to take part in an identification parade and he had replied: “No not me mate. You prove it.” In his address to the jury Mr Barker said that it was denied by the defence that Ruhi . had anything to do with the burglary. The caretaker was not able to identify Ruhi as one of the two men whom he had seen “casing the joint” on the night of the burglary. Ruhi had told the detective he lent his car and those persons could have stolen the safe. The Crown had failed to prove its case,