YOUTHFUL BURGLARS

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 137, 8 December 1919, Page 7

YOUTHFUL BURGLARS

NOT THEIR FIRST OFFENCE.

Two youths, one eighteen, and the other fifteen years of age, were brought before Mr. W G. Riddell, S.M., at the Juvenile Court this morning to answer a series of charges of breaking, entering, and theft. The police evidence was to the effect that on two dates, 28th September and 19th October, both Sundays, the youths broke into the premises of the Kia Ora Galvanising Company, in Egmont-streot, by breaking a window, and thus reaching- tlie latch, and then, by climbing over a partition, entered the premises of the Wellington Tinware Company, while on sth October the Kia Ora Company's premises alone were entered. The articles stolen included tools of varied descriptions, snips, rules, pliers, hammers, rivet sets, punches, etc., and a pair of boots, a watch, a level, a rubber stamp, and a cornet were also missed. The total value of the articles mentioned in the charges was £11 4s 6d, but many of the articles had been recovered from the second-hand shops where the youths disposed of them, under assumed names, leaving articles valued at £7 10s not accounted for.

The acensed, who were before the Magistrate on 16th September on charges of having broken and entered the premises of E. W. Mills arid Company, admitted the thefts in the main but denied all knowledge of the stealing of _ the cornet, in regard to which the evidence was not very definite. The Magistrate agreed, on the suggestion of Mr J. P. Mills, Probation Ofceer, and Mr. J. Dinnoen, Juvenile Probation Officer, to extend the present terms of two yea-re' probation imposed upon the youths following their thefts from Messrs. E. W. Mills and Company, to three years, as there were some, what exceptional circumstances in the home life of tho boys, but he warned them that if further offences were committed or if they failed to comply with the terms of probation, they would Be again called before the Court and sent to gaol. They would have to make good the value of tho goods not recovered, a matter of £5 10s, and would also have to reimburse the second-hand dealers. Mr. W. Perry appeared for the younger boy.