Same Stolen Liquor Taken To Whangarei

Northern Advocate, 29 October 1948, Page 4

Same Stolen Liquor Taken To Whangarei

AUCKLAND, Fri. (Sp.) Several bottles of whisky stolen in Auckland were disposed of in Whangarei, said Mr C. D. Speight, for the Crown, in the Supreme Court yesterday. A driver, William Percival Willis, 33, and Henry Louis Jackson, also a driver, 23, pleaded guilty to charges of stealing 48 bottles of gin‘squash and 24 bottles of orange gin valued at £25/4/-, on September 18; of unlawfully converting to their own use on September 25 a motor-van valued at £350, the. property of City Haulage, Ltd.; of breaking into the warehouse of City Haulage, Ltd., and stealing 48 bottles of whisky valued at £52; and of breaking into the same premises and stealing 24 bottles of whisky valued at £26. The two men were remanded for sentence. CHARGE DENIED

A taxidriver, Ronald Bruce Mathers, 30, pleaded not guilty to charges of receiving the 48 bottles of whisky knowing them to have been stolen, and of breaking into the warehouse of City Haulage, Ltd., and stealing 24 bottles of whisky. There were alternative charges of stealing this whisky or of receiving it knowing it to have been stolen. Mr Speight said Willis and Jackson removed four cases of whisky and took it in a City Haulage van to Willis’ house. With one of these bottles in their possession they got into Mathers’ taxi and sold it to him for 30/-. The three arranged to pick up the other 47, bottles, and they went round town in Mathers’ tao?i selling it. TRIP NORTH They visited the warehouse again and Willis and Jackson brought out another two cases. Mathers drove them that night to Whangarei, and there they ‘disposed of more bottles. Mr Speight said that Mathers made two long statements to the detectives and in one case he admitted he knew the'two cases must have been stolen and yet he assisted in selling it. Accused gave evidence that he did not know the whisky was stolen.

The final addresses and summing-up will be heard today.