ALLEGED THEFT

Grey River Argus, 26 November 1942, Page 4

ALLEGED THEFT

£372 IN NOTES AND CHEQUES KAIKOHE, Nov. 25. Appearing before justices, Douglas Wright, a soldier, pleaded not guilty to the theft of £285 in money and postal notes and £B7 in cheques from a grocery store in Kaikohe. Marshall Wilkinson said that entry to his shop in Broadway had been forced through the front door, alongside which the following morning he had found a tyre- lever and the leaf of a spring. The office safe had been opened with explosives and the contents taken. On the flo.or lay a tyre lever, a pick head and a hack--saw. Arthur Patrick Wadey, a soldier, told how he arrived at Kaikohe late on rhe night of July 31 and, being unable to obtain accommodation, went to a shed at the back of Wilkinson’s shop. He was awakened by the sound of an ’ explosion. A man came running into the- yard, and on entering the shed, flashed a torch on witness and then made off. He was about the the same ’ height and build at accused, but his face could not be seen. Next morning the bus to Whangarei was about 8 miles out of Kaikohe when it picked un a man, who sat beside witness. He identified the accused as being this man. Detective-Sergeant Alpen said traces of gelignite had' been found on bank notes in Wright’s possess ; on. Wright was committed for trial.