THEFT OF KEYS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1939, Page 5

THEFT OF KEYS

CAR-CONVERSION ATTEMPT. |PEK CHESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, April 17. Seen entering cars on Waterloo Quay, and subsequently arrested by a constable, William John Ackins, a labourer, 25, who came before Mr. .1. H. Luxford, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court, to-day. admitted the Diet! of seven keys, of a total value of 22/6, the property of the Union Steam Ship Company, but pleaded not- guilty to a charge of attempted unlawful conversion of a motor-car, valued at. £2OO. After evidence had been heard, he was convicted on both charges, and stood down for sentence until to-mor-row, pending receipt, of a report from the probation officer. Sub-Inspector D. J. O’Neill, who prosecuted, first called Horace Lane Hancock, a storeman employed Dy the Harbour Board, who said that, on Saturday last, about. 3 p.m., he was working in No. 17 shed. He noticed a person coming along Waterloo Quay, under the influence of liquor. The man went ro a car, and tried the door with a key. He could not get into this car. and tried the next one. He got

into a biscuit-coloured car, and a little afterwards; got out again, and tried another, which he could not enter, and eventually got .into a maroon ear. Witness called out to the man: “Here’s a policeman—you had hotter beat it,” and the man went away. Similar evidence was given by another storeman. Constable S. Williams said he accosted accused on the wharf, and asked him what he was doing interfering with cars on Waterloo Quay. At first Aekins said he. wanted to sleep, and said if the constable took him somewhere he would have a sleep. Accused was under the influence of liquor. At the wharf police station, said the constable, accused said he wanted to leave Wellington, and asked witness what he would do if he wanted to leave Wellington. He later said that was the reason why he wanted a car. Later, at the central station, accused came to him, and said he had been a fool, and would tell the truth. He produced seven keys, which he said he had stolen from now cars awaiting export on the wharf. He said he had taken the keys with uie idea, of using them in an attempt to convert a car. and that -was what he was using the keys for when the man called out. to him on Waterloo Quay. He said he had consumed a considerable amount of liquor during the day, and blamed liquor for his lapse. To Mr. R. Hardie Roys, counsel for Aekins, witness said he would not say accused was garrulous. He made a frank confession. Accused pleaded not. guilty to the

charge of attempted unlawful conversion, said Mr. Boys, but it was wholly a matter whether the evidence, in the view of the Court, disclosed anything further than intention on the part of the accused. He did not think accused would have got so far as to have driven a car away. Usually the Court did not consider probation in this type of case, said the S.M., when he announced his decision to enter a conviction, but in this ins'ance he would ask for a report from the Probation Officer. There was nothing known previously against accused, said Sub-Inspector O’Neill.

ADMITTED TO PROBATION WELLINGTON. April 18. “There is a great deal of difficulty in these cases, because when there is a definite evil, as there is at the present time with regard to car conversion, it is very difficult, to do other than sentence any offender found guilty to a term of imprisonment. However, in the administration of the law there is no hard-and-fast rule, and every case must be considered on its merits. In your case, the report of the Probation Officer is such that it would be -wrong, at this stage, to send you to prison. The whole circumstances surrounding your case seem to be the perverted outlook of a person under the influence of liquor, rather than a person deliberately setting out to convert a motor-vehicle.’’ With these remarks, the S.M. admitted to two years’ probation William John Aekins, 25. labourer, who was charged with attempted car-conver-sion, also the theft of a bunch of keys.