Trainer stole wheelchair for sulky use

Press, 19 December 1981, Page 4

Trainer stole wheelchair for sulky use

A horse trainer who stole a hospital wheelchair, valued at $4OO, had intended using the wheels on a sulky, Sergeant W. J. McCormick, said in the District Court yesterday.

The defendant, who at the request of-counsel (Mrs D. Orchard), was granted interim suppression of his name by Judge Frampton was remanded on bail to January 14 for a probation report and sentence. The accused, aged 25, admitted stealing the wheelchair, the property of his employer, the North Canterbury Hospital Board, between April 1 and May 31. Sergeant McCormick said that at the time the defendant worked as a night porter

at the hospital while during the day he trained horses at a rented property at Yald- .; hurst. ■; The wheelchair had been removed from a storeroom and taken to the Yaldhurst property where after removing the wheels the defendant found they were too small for the sulky.

Soon afterwards the defendant moved to another job and the owner of the property found the abandoned Ts wheelchair and notified the police. When spoken to by the police last month the defendant said he had returned the ; wheels to the hospital during *. a hospital amnesty. ~A Compensation of $173 was ■; sought from the defendant, •;> said Sergeant McCormick. <