HOLD-UP BY BOYS

Grey River Argus, 30 October 1942, Page 2

HOLD-UP BY BOYS

1 CAR WITH £lO,OOO PAYROLL. I P.A. AUCKLAND. October 29. I Two boys were jointly charged in the. Children's Court, before Mr J. H. Luxford, S.M., with having assaulted Robert John Quested, with intent to rob him at Otahuhu on October 15, and with the theft of a pair of number plates on the previous day. De-tective-Sergeant Trethewey said the Police Department considered that it was a cas.e_to go before the Supreme. Court. It was an armd hold-up. The accused, aged 16i years and 16 years 10 months, .had formed the idea of holding up the Otahuhu Railway Workshops pay-roll car. One bought a .22 repeating rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition the day before. The rifle was bought and registered in the normal way.- On October 15, the boy borrowed his father’s motor-car, on which were placed the stolen license plates, and, with his accomplice, a cabinetmaker's apprentice, drove in front of the pay-roll car, which stopped in Favona Road, where the boys had ordered it to stop. One of the boys got out of their car, took a part from the pay-roll car to dismantle it, and attempted to dismantle it, and attempted to steal £lO,OOO contained in the pay-roll car, while the other boy held the rifle. The rifle was found to contain II rounds. One of the boys had used force and had struck a man in the car with a spanner. When the boy with the rifle saw that, they were not succeeding, he called his friend back and they drove away. Ths boys had been disguised, both wearing sun glasses and scarves over their faces.

Mr C. E. Matthews and Mr C. Snedden appeared for the boys, who pleaded guilty.

The boys were equally guilty, said Mr Matthews. The boy with the rifle had not covered the pay-roll car with the rifle, and he had not demonstrated it in a menacing way. The rifle had been lying through the open windshield of the car, and he had had one hand on it. The boys; who had had excellent records at school, and whose parents were of immaculate reputation, were after all only children, and he asked that they be dealt with by the Children’s Court. The boys had been completely unable to explain why they did it. They had a small cabinetmaking workshop wher e they turned out fine, saleable goods in their spare time, and they may have had an idea of getting rich quickly to set up their small factory. Mr Sneddon said that the boy for whom he appeared had stated that they certainly had no intention of using the rifle A request that the boys be dealt with in the Children's Court, was made by Mr A. E. Wishart, Boys’ Welfare Officer. “It is more a case for the Child Welfare Department than the Prison:? Department,” said the Magistrate who committed the boys to the care of the State. They would be under the care of the Superintendent of the Child Welfare Department. In due course they would come back to their people on license. He ordered confiscation of the rifle.