Two men jailed for armed robbery
PA Auckland Two men have been jailed for the armed robbery of the Roscommon Post Office on November 6. \ Mr Justice Hillyer in the High Court at Auckland, sentenced Richard Leslie Maxwell, aged 24, unemployed, of Otahuhu, to 4% years jail , and Robert Leslie Mills, aged 20, a trade assistant, of Papatoe-
toe, to 3Vz years jail. Both had pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery, committing an offence while armed with a sawn-off shotgun, and unlawfully taking a car. The pair took about $9OOO in the robbery. Maxwell’s counsel, Mr Russell Johnson, said the Crown accepted that the shotgun had not been loaded.
He said Maxwell, over several years, had become embroiled in drug-taking which had led to some degree of addiction. Some weeks before the offence Maxwell had been approached by a man he had not identified and asked to sell heroin. Instead, Maxwell used the heroin himself and ended up owing $3OOO.
Mr Johnson said the man made it clear to Maxwell that if he did not find the money he would be “kneecapped” and that his sister’s house would be fire-bombed. “I am told it is in that context that the idea was spawned that the Roscommon Post Office be robbed.”
Mr Cliff Lyon, for Mills, said that the plan to rob the post office was put to his client on the day of the robbery. Mills had been unable to offer an explanation for taking part. Mr Lyon submitted that Mills’s part had been in what he termed the lowerrange of offending. Mr Honour said the advent of the use of handguns in robberies was alarming and the courts had to take steps to dissuade offenders from using them. “The fact that they (Maxwell and Mills) were sufficiently inept to be caught, or that the police were sufficiently competent to capture them, is merely fortunate. The offences were serious.”
On the charges of committing an offence while armed and unlawfully taking a car, Maxwell and Mills were each sentenced to two periods of 18 months’ jail, all terms to be concurrent. '
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Press, 5 December 1985, Page 40
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350Two men jailed for armed robbery Press, 5 December 1985, Page 40
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