Two businessmen ‘unlikely robbers’

Press, 27 November 1984, Page 18

Two businessmen ‘unlikely robbers’

PA Auckland Two businessmen appearing for sentence were the most unlikely bank robbers a Judge said he had ever seen. lan Richard Penton, aged 24, of Manurewa, and Anthony Mark Dalrymple, aged 26, of Parnell, had claimed that their bank rob-

bery master plan was "an a joke.” But a High Court jury in Auckland had disagreed and found them guilty of conspiracy to rob. Sentencing them yesterday, Mr Justice Prichard said: “I would regard you as the most unlikely pair of robbers I have yet encountered.”

He said he was satisfied the robbery would never have taken place and ordered them to come up for sentence if called upon within 12 months. Dalrymple said outside the Court that the sentence was fair but the jury’s verdict was “a travesty of justice.” “It was all a joke. We made the mistake of putting it down on paper.” Both men were to appeal against conviction. Counsel for Penton, Mr Roger Maclaren, told the Court he thought the jury’s decision was “somewhat perverse.” The pair’s master plan was found in an exercise book Dalrymple left in his flat when he went to Australia. It detailed a robbery of the Westpac bank at Hunter’s corner, in Papatoetoe. Dalrymple was extradited to face the charge and Penton lost his job. Mr Maclaren said that Penton had fought an expensive legal battle appealing against the loss of his car salesman’s licence. For Dalrymple, Mr Barry Hart said that his client had spent eight to 10 days in Sydney’s Long Bay Jail, which he believed was worse than New Zealand jails.

• More court reports page 20