Jail for possession of pistol

Press, 18 February 1986, Page 14

Jail for possession of pistol

A man who was unable to explain why he was found in possession of a .25-calibre automatic pistol, and 13 rounds of ammunition for it, was jailed for three months when sentenced in the District Court yesterday. Judge Frampton told Raymond Lloyd Cullen, aged 29, a fibreglass worker, that it was clearly in the public interest that there be a deterrent sentence for persons who went into public places with loaded firearms.

The maximum penalty for unlawful possession of a firearm, and ammunition, is three years jail.

Cullen (Miss E. H. B. Thompson) had admitted having the items in his possession when the police visited the British Hotel on the night of January 23.

There was an order in force prohibiting Cullen from possessing a firearm, said the police, when the defendant pleaded to the charge.

Miss Thompson said the offences related to potential rather than actual danger. Of the prohibition order she said this applied to all members of the Epitaph Riders, to which her client belonged. The loss of a job Cullen had held for eight years would in Itself be out of all proportion to the actual offence. Miss Thompson said that in the hope of retaining this employment, her client had taken annual leave to cover the four weeks he had been held in custody. ESCAPER Three months were ' added to the existing prison term of a man who escaped from Paparua Prison and remained at large for 25 days. Philip Edwin Galbraith, aged 21, admitted escaping on January 1. Sergeant J. W. Dwyer said Galbraith escaped from a work party working at a hall near the prison. He was recaptured

in the Nelson area. The escape was made on the spur of the moment during a tea break while the work party was not supervised. Galbraith did not get into any trouble while at large. He went to Riwaka to obtain seasonal work. BURGLARY OFFENCE Three men who admitted burgling the premises of Ballins Rattray, Ltd, from where 24 cartons of rum, valued at $7898, were stolen, were each remanded on renewed bail to March 3 for probation reports and sentence. They are Phillip James ' Swain, aged 19, a shoemaker; Murray Alec Watkins, aged 17, a process worker; and Jay Clifford Durham, aged 17, unemployed. Sergeant Dwyer said that at 3.50 a.m. on February 2 the police were called to a burglary at the Byron Street premises of Ballins Rattray. They found 24 cartons of rum hidden between

pallets in the yard. A watch was kept and later a white van backed up to the fence and the three defendants were seen loading the cartons into the van. All the stolen property was recovered, said Sergeant Dwyer. COMMUNITY SERVICE A total of 150 hours of community service was ordered to be done by a solo mother convicted on eight charges in what police described as a $640,000 forged cheque conspiracy. The Judge'■"told Kay Linda Kennedy, aged 32 (Miss P. D. Costigan), that he was pi-epared to accept that but for her friendship with a co-offender she would not have become involved. The offending, he said, was of “some magnitude” for a first offender. Had the scheme been successful, a substantial sum of money would have come into the hands of the co-offenders although how much Kennedy would

have received was a moot point, said the Judge. Earlier, the Court was told that Kennedy, and two men, had used false National Bank cheques, personalised to the Trustee Executors and Agency Company, Ltd. The offending occurred at Dunedin and Timaru last December. Miss Costigan said her client had not considered the scheme to have any real chance of success. It was a fantasy which she played along with. Kennedy, a mother of two, made no personal gain from the offending, said Miss Costigan. A Queenstown builder was fined $4OOO, sentenced to periodic detention for six months, and ordered to make $852 reparation for his part in the conspiracy. Another man, Trevor Allan Lee, who faces joint charges alleging the use of forged cheques, has been remanded to May 5 for the taking of depositions.