Brothers guilty of robbery

Press, 20 August 1983, Page 6

Brothers guilty of robbery

Two brothers were found guilty by a jury in the High Court yesterday on a charge of aggravated robbery of $515 from Graham Neville Honeybone at the Port Hills Service Station on September 20.

Mr Justice Roper remanded Karl Emil Stender, aged 19, and Kaaran Filip Stender, aged 20, welders, in custody to August 26 for sentence.

They were also found guilty on a charge of unlawfully getting into the Cortina car which was used as a getaway car for the robbery.

Mr G. K. Panckhurst appeared for the Crown, and Messrs G. M. Brodie and D. P. Madden for the accused.

James Murray Thomas, of Hanmer Springs, said that he had been sentenced on charges of aggravated robbery and unlawfully taking a car in December. On September 20 he had met the Stender brothers at the Labour Department. After drinking whisky at Taylor’s Mistake they went to the Lion Tavern in Addington where he stole three bottles of Marque Vue by jumping over the bar in the lounge bar.

When their car ran out of petrol Thomas said that he took a Cortina by opening

the door with a pen knife. They went for a joy ride as they “were all under the weather.”

Eventually after driving around the back streets because the car was stolen they carried out the robbery of the service station attendant. Both Stender brothers were present and participated in the offence, Thomas said.

In his address to the jury Mr Brodie said that the whole case was riddled with doubt and the main Crown witness was completely unreliable. Thomas was a confessed sneak thief, an alcoholic who suffered from blackouts and a car converter as well as being an alleged accomplice.

Thomas was an exhibitionist who lived in a television fantasy land. While breaking into a car he had been muttering about the “Dukes of Hazzard.” No reliance could be placed on his evidence because he had been intent on saving his own skin by falsely implicating the Stender brothers, Mr Brodie said.

When thanking the jury his Honour said that the Stender brothers were no strangers to the courts and had a number of convictions but none as serious as robbery.