Two burglars jailed

Press, 22 September 1984, Page 4

Two burglars jailed

Two men were sentenced in the District Court yesterday to jail terms after earlier being convicted on charges involving property valued at more than $30,000. Judge Pain described Robert Geoffrey Matthews, aged 24, and Warren Bruce Flutey, aged 23, both unemployed, as dangers at large in the community and predators on society. The Judge sentenced Flutey to 2% years jail for his part in the offences and to two months jail for an offence involving the obtaining of a false passport. The terms of imprisonment will be concurrent. Matthews was sentenced to two years jail for his part in the property offences. Matthews and Flutey

were recently found guilty by a jury on nine joint charges of burglary and two joint charges of theft. They were also found guilty of unlawfully taking a motorvehicle.

On separate charges, Flutey was found guilty on one count of theft He was found not guilty on a burglary charge, but guilty on the receiving charge which was an alternative.

In passing sentence, the Judge said that the jury’s verdict showed that the pair were involved in a joint criminal exercise of some scale. They had used two separate premises to store a considerable amount of stolen goods. The incidence of burglary in Christchurch was such

that deterrent sentences would be imposed, said the Judge. Persons engaged in that type of activity would be well aware of this. Past sentences had had no deterrent effect on the pair and further imprisonment would be unlikely to reform them, said the Judge. However, a long term of imprisonment was needed to protect the community. In earlier submissions, Flutey’s counsel, Mr S. C. Barker, described his client as a relatively young man who still had time to settle and make a fresh start. Matthew’s counsel, Ms E. H. B. Thompson, said that he had reached a crisis point in his life and needed “some light at the end of the tunnel.”