YOUNG MEN’S THEFTS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 190, 10 May 1934, Page 7

YOUNG MEN’S THEFTS

Stolen Goods Recovered From Chinese FURTHER CHARGE PENDING Five fruit boxes crammed full with cigarettes and tobacco were exhibited in the Wellington Magistrate’s Court yesterday when the story of how they were stolen from the Self Help Co-op., Ltd., at Upper Hutt, and allegedly sold to a Chinese fruiterer, was related. Two labourers, Samuel Osmond Reddish and Philip Samuel Dee, each aged 23, pleaded guilty to the offence, as well as another of breaking and entering the shop of a Chinese fruiterer at Pahiatua and stealing a .safe, cheque book and money of a total value of £l7/6/2. They were committed by Mr. E. Page, S.M., to the Supreme Court for sentence. The manager of the Self Help Store, George Palamountain, explained that one morning last month he had discovered the back door of the shop open and the front door lock missing, and said that more than £5O worth of goods stolen had been recovered. Detective Long, who informed Reddish that be was suspected of the deed, obtained an unsigned statement from the accused admitting that he and an- . other man bad broken into the store. The detective next visited a Chinese fruit ship in Molesworth Street, where he recovered a large quantity of tobacco. When interviewed by Detective Ritchie, Dee made and signed a statement which said that he, Reddish, and another man had entered the shop and taken all the tobacco there, together with other articles, all of which were placed in sacks and brought back to town in a motor-car. He said that the "other man” had sold the tobacco and cigarettes to a Chinese. Both detectives stated that accused had given every assistance in clearing the matter up. Frank Young, a Chinese fruiterer, whose shop was entered at Pahiatua and whose safe, containing a cheque book and 5/- worth of coppers, was stolen, his evidence through an interpreter. He said that the safe was badly damaged when recovered. A sledge hammer, which it was admitted had been used to open the safe, was found by a detective in a motorcar belonging to one of the me::. In a statement, Dee mentioned that a third man was in the party when they visited Pahiatua. That man, who knew the Chinese pretty wed, had gone into the fruiterer’s shop, and when he came out he said he had seen the safe. “It’s sweet,” he is alleged to have said. “We'can get it later.” Accused also pleaded guilty to offences at Wanganui and Foxton. Sentence was deferred by the magistrate on those charges for a week, when a case against Peter Young, Chinese fruiterer, aged 29, charged with receiving cigarettes aud tobacco, valued at £5O, the property of the Self Help Coop., Ltd., k owing them to have been dishonestly obtained, will be heard. Mr. I, Joseph, who is appearing for Young, asked that the matter be held over to enable him to go into the case.