"CAREER OF CRIME"

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 40, 17 February 1933, Page 14

"CAREER OF CRIME"

GAS METEK THIEF

SEVERAL-CHARGES ADMITTED

Sis charges of committing mischief by" ■wilfully damaging gas meters, each to the extent of ss, the property of the Petcne and Lower Hutt Gas Lighting Board, five charges of stealing money totalling £2 13s and electric light globes valued at Ss, the property of various persons, and - one charge of being a rogue and a vagabond in that he ■was in possession of instruments of housebreaking, were made against Cyril Norman Wallis, aged 22, an unemployed printer, of Newtown, before Mr. J. Miller, S.M-r, iv the Magistrate's Court at Lower Hutt on Wednesday. He was convicted on cix of the charges, and sentenced on each to two months' imprisonment, .the sentences to be concurrent. ■ The offences were all alleged to have . been committeed on January 23 and 25. Mr. J. A. .Scott, • counsel for AVallis, offered an1' alibi for January 23, and six charges relating to that day were all dismissed. At the beginning of the hearing Mr. Scott asked that all the cases be taken together, but Senior-Sergeant H. H. Butler, who" prosecuted, would not agree to "this, and they were heard separately, the first being a charge. of damaging a gas meter on January 25. The senior seigaant said that the accused went into houses in the Petone and Hutt districts and knocked at the: doors. If anybody answered he would ask the whereabouts of some person, but if he got no reply he would break open slot gas* meters and rob them. AN OFFENCE DESCRIBED. John Symons, a baker, of 16 - Islington Street, Petone, gave evidence that on the .afternoon of January 25 he was lying on a sofa in his "house when he'heard a knock on the front door. He looked through the front window, and saw a man going in the direction of the meter, which was just outside the window. He heard a tapping at the meter, arid then saw the man go away. Witness then went to the meter, and found it had been broken iopen. He went for the senior sergeant, and the two began to search for the man, who was subsequently found and identified. When located in'another street/the accused was at a door "asking for Ms aunt." After a denial that he had been in Islington Street, he was. searched, and amongst other things in his pockets was found a printer's key, a skeleton key, 16 single ■ shillings,- some small coins, and four electric light globes. He said that he had acquired the printer's' key during the course of his work in. a printing office, the other key being that of the back door of his home: the shillings, he said,-were Telief _ pay. - ; _Jt was demonstrated in Court that the printer's key fitted the marks on the "broken cash-box of Mr. Symons's meter. SEVENTEEN METERS DAMAGED. The senior sergeant said that between Uanuary 19 and 25 seventeen gas meters . Tiad been broken into in. Lower Hutt and Petone, and none since the 25th. The police were satisfied that they had not jTjeen broken by the occupiers of the :;lous'es. After a denial by the accused of the (allegations against him, the Magistrate :;?aid he could not accept the accused's cviStlenee that he was not in Islington Street that. afternoon. Symons had had no difiiculty in identifying the accused. His Worship was not satisfied with the acKcused's conduct in turning-out his pockets and his explanation of their contents. The ■printer's key had apparently' been filed fdown for some particular object. Drawing attention to the infrequency of the accused's visits to his aunt in Petone, the ffact that four globes were loose in his fpockets, and that instead of asking his '.aunt's whereabouts from women who were ' cm the footpath he had gone past them and into the next house,. Mr. Miller said ■that all the facts were against Wallisj but the most significant was that the printer's key found in Wallis's possession: exactly fitted the marks on the broken cash-box. Wallis must be convicted on .this charge, and sentence would be deferred until the 'afternoon. / OTHER CHARGES ADMITTED. ' When the Court resumed after lunch JMr. Scott intimated that in view of the on the first case he would plead ' guilty to the other charges relating to the •;-25th. He pleaded not guilty to the 23rd charges, and all of them, were then heard together. > ; ', Evidence was called to show that a man"ber of gas meters had "been tampered >vith in various houses 6n the 23rd. The accused in the box gave a detailed of his movements on that date, jfand called several witnesses in support ('pi his statements. !• After hearing this evidence, his Wortehip dismissed the charges relating to the EL23rd. •••■:•.- I Mr. Scott asked for the suppression of l-rthe name- but this 'was refused by Mr. S'Miller, who. said that the possession of [ilioiisebreaking implements .was a very seri2«us matter and that Wallis had set out f.on a career of crime. Considering the pjiumber of cases, the nature of the ofKfences, and the difficulty of detecting E tliem, he had no other course than to impose a term" of imprisonment for the k'harges on which the accused had been iconvicted. / • An order was made'for the return of the money and the electric light globes.