P.O. robbery admitted

Press, 24 October 1980, Page 5

P.O. robbery admitted

PA Auckland it Two men wearing over-It alls, gloves and balaclavas,;! and armed with a sawn-offp shotgun and a metal baseball, bat, burst into the Manu-lj rewa South Post Office last c Friday evening, the District Court at Otahuhu heard £ yesterday . t Three men were appearing j before .’ .dge Finnigan in t connection with the robbery j and all pleaded guilty to the c charges they faced. They were Lester Hamilton, aged 32, a carpenter, of Manurewa; Douglas j Charles Hamilton, aged 34, a an unemployed labourer, of no fired abode; and Barry < Hamiora Pohutuhutu, aged - 34, a ‘oreman packer, of ' Otahuhu. The Judge committed all 1 three to the. High Court for f sentence and remanded them J 2 in custody. 1 Lester Hamilton was charged with unlawfully tak- t ing a car valued at $l6OO. c He and Douglas Hamilton i

were charged .wit) aggravated robbery and with unlawfully possessing a shotgun. Douglas Hamilton faced further charges of the theft of a ; ar. valued at $4OO and with unlawfully getting into anoth car. He was also charged with injuring Steven Mills u ier circumstances, that had death been caused, he would have been guilty of manslaughter. Pohutuhutu was charged with receiving $4O, the property of the New Zealand Post Office, and with being a party to the robbery. Detective-Sergeant W. R. Scott told the Court that when Douglas Hamilton and another offender, burst into the Post Office they yelled out to the two customers, both aged 15, to get against the wall. One youth was hit with a baseball bat and when the other, Stephen Mills, was pushed against the wall with

[the end of a shotgun carried by Douglas Hamilton, the I gun discharged. [ The two men demanded money from the teller, aged 17, ; rid were given $2Oll. Detective Sergeant. Scott said that Douglas Hamilton and two female companions arrived in Auckland to stay with his brother, Lester, a week before the robbery. When they became short of money they started talking about “doing a job" and sawed off a shotgun to use in the offence.

The night before the robbery' the offenders went to the Duke of Wellington Tavern, where they stole a car ready for the robbery'. They met Pohutuhutu at the tavern and when asked, he agreed to supply them with overall, balaclavas and gloves. The next night the group held a party with some of the proceeds of the robbery and the rest of the money was divided up.