Bulgarian sent for trial on armed robbery count

Press, 3 November 1983, Page 4

Bulgarian sent for trial on armed robbery count

A Bulgarian has been committed for trial on one charge of armed robbery and eight of burglary involving the theft of property and cash and damage totalling ?41,227, by Mr R. M. Naysmith and Dr J. F. Mann, Justices of the Peace, after the taking of depositions in the District Court yesterday. Petar Iliev Hristov, aged 23, unemployed, who was represented by Mr D. J. Taffs, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. On the charge of aggravated robbery of $4841 from Laurie Olave Crossman, the postmistress at the Heathcote Post Office on May 19, Hristov was remanded in custody to November 28 for trial in the High Court

He will be fried before a jury in the District Court on the eight charges of burgee taking of depositions began on Tuesday. Detective Sergeant D. Quested appeared for the police.

Aeneas Alister Hamish .McKenzie, a Rangiora County Council clerk, said that in the early hours of August 8 the council offices were damaged to the value of $3OOO by a burglary and fire.

Constable Martin Wayne Lucas said that at 2.47 a.m. on August 8 he was on night crime patrol when a milk vendor spoke to him in Percival Street, Rangiora. He drove towards the Rangiora County Council offices and as he approached he saw a car drive away.

The car was stopped and Hristov, the driver, smelt strongly of smoke. Asked what he was doing, Hristov said that he had gone for a drive because he could not sleep. On the front seat was a pair of yellow rubber gloves covered in charcoal and on the back a jemmy and a screwdriver with a broken tip. Hristov’s denim jacket smelt strongly of smoke.

At the Rangiora Police Station Hristov said that he knew nothing about the. fire and burglary and the jemmy, gloves and screwdriver were used for cleaning the car. Shown the broken tip of a screwdriver, Hristov admitted that it was his. When told that it had been found inside the council offices he made no comment, Constable Lucas said. Asked where he had got the gas cutting gear from, Hristov replied: “I’ll tell you nothing.” When the residence in Seddon Street, Kaianga, was searched a quantity of stolen property was found, as well as shotgun and .22 cartridges. A sawn-off single barrelled pump action shotgun and a 22 Italian semi-auto-matic rifle were found in the wardrobe of his bedroom, Constable Lucas said. Detective Terence Michael Gunn said that

Hristov had denied ever going to the Heathcote Post Office or Diamond Harbour. Told that his car had been seen in the vicinity of a holiday house at Diamond Harbour which had been burgled, he denied all knowledge of the offence. Hristov denied that he had repainted his light blue car white because of publicity in the news media after the armed hold-up at the Heathcote Post Office. It was not true that he had taken a converted' motor-cycle in his car to the Valley Inn car park and then left on the motor-cycle after committing the robbery, nor had he told a girl that he had done it, Hristov said, according to Detective Gunn. Hristov had refused to go on an identification parade and said that he did not know why his fingerprints had been found at the scene of two jewellery shop burglaries in Auckland, said Detective Gunn.