BURGLARY IN CITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19780, 29 October 1927, Page 14

BURGLARY IN CITY.

THEFT FROM WAREHOUSE. THREE MEN FOUND GUILTY. SALE OF STOLEN CIGARETTES. Three men, at their feet a case of cigarettes they were charged with stealing, stood trial in the Supreme Court yesterday before Mr. Justice Reed. They were Ernest Clifford Eae, aged 43, and his brother, Francis Harry Rae, aged 31 (Mr. Allan Moody), and Kenneth McQuoid. aged 35 (Mr. Matthews), a son-in-law of the elder Rao. .All three were charged with breaking and entering the warehouse oi Irving Clark and Company, Anzac Avenue, on September 17, and stealing cigarettes and tobacco valued at £7B 4s. There was an alternative charge of receiving. Mr. Hubble, for the Crown, said although there -was no direct evidence against the accused on the charge of burglary, they had all handled the stolen goods on the day following the burglary and had disposed of them as rapidly as they could, selling the cigarettes to a tobacconist for £1 a box. Samuel Howard said he had hired his one-ton truck to Harry Rae on September 18 and it was returned later in the day. A* taxi-driver, John Gray, gave evidence that on the evening of September 18 he had been engaged to drive Harry Rae from Grey Lynn to McQuoid'b residence, where Harry Rae and McQuoid loaded some suitcases and a quilt and blanket containing some goods into the taxi, which was then driven with these two accused as passengers to the shop of a St. Heliers Bay tobacconist, where the luggage was left. Sale by " a Traveller." Alexander Black, the tobacconist in question, said the two Raes asked him if he would buy some cigarettes obtainable from "a traveller," at £1 a box. He agreed. Witness said about 8 p,m. Harry Rae and another man, described by Rae as the "'traveller," arrived in a taxi with the cigarettes. Senior-Detective Hammond said McQuoid, when first seen, denied all knowledge of the matter. When shown rugs and suitcases from his house, however, he admitted that one quilt and one suitcase were h:s, the former having been on the bed of Harry Rae, who, with his brother, had been staying at the house of McQuoid, to whom the Raes owed £l2 for board. McQuoid said he had not been out on the night of the burglary. In the meantime the Raes had gone to Whangarei. where they were arrested subsequently. They said that on the evening of the burglary they had left McQuoid at home. Next day McQuoid had told them he had some 40 boxes of cigarettes for sale, and the Raes had arranged to dispose of them as desoribed. McQuoid had offered £2 commission. Statement to Police. Chief-Detective Cummings said that in a later statement McQuoid, a married man with a baby a few days old, hi. said he would tell the truth and declared the Raes "had not got much on him." The Raes, he said, had come to his house with the tobacco in a truck and left it there, Harry Rae returning later with a taxi. McQuoid said he tiien helped in loading the cigarettes into the car and accompanied Harry Rae to the tobacconist's to sell them. Next day Rae came to him and said the "police were after him, that he was leaving, and that if approached he (McQuoid) should ..know., nothing about it." Defending counsel didf no t call evidence. Summing up. Honor commented or; the eirromst.^" nce jj no evidence had been addu<. ec | to show how the goods f- had been come by. That aspect J? the case had been "left in the air." The jury was entitled to draw its own inferences from the fact that accused had in their possession and handled the goods sr> soon after their theft. After a retirement of about two hours the jury found all three accused guilty of breaking and entering and fhert, and of receiving. The prisoners wi-ro remanded until Monday for sentence.