JEWEL ROBBERIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23470, 6 October 1939, Page 4

JEWEL ROBBERIES

THEEB MEN CONFESS OVER £1032 INVOLVED . STATEMENTS TO POLICE Seven recent burglaries in Auckland, including those of two city Jewellery <" shops were referred to in charges' preferred against three young, men in , the Police Court yesterday. The accused were Kenneth Hugh Bennetts, salesman, aged 21 (Mr. Aekins), Leo Leonard Colquhoun, labourer, aged 25 (Mr. Sullivan), and Allan Far-/, quhar Young, labourer, aged 19. They admitted all the charges. % The value of jewellery and money involved totalled £1032 4s 6d. Bennetts was named in seven charges. In one he was jointly charged with " Colquhoun with breaking and entering a shop and stealing £672 worth of jewellery, and in another he was jointly charged with Young with breaking and entering another shop and stealing £l3O los worth of jewellery. Shops in Oity In a series of statements to detectives Bennetts admitted robbing, i n > company with Young, the ,shop of Gordon Stuart. Hutchinson, jewelkr, in Queen's Arcade, on September 11, Next night, he said, he went with Colquhoun an(i robbed . the shop of ' Ernest McFcat, Jeweller, in Karangahape Road. „ ' Young made'a statement that he c j''. met Bennetts o.n the evening of Sep., , tember 11. Bennetts entered Hutchinson's shop with a,'ladder, and ad-' jnittcd Young through the front'door. Colquhoun said in a statement that he met Bennetts oh September 'l2, and learned of his plans to rob McFeat's shop. He consented to agsist i Bennetts, as he wanted the money to leave Auckland, $ and undertook to obtain "a jemmy." ...and borrowed a tyre lever from a neighbour. With th'is Bennetts brolie into McFeats. shop' that night. ' , - Jewellery Recovered , "I was to get half' the proceeds,"/,-.; said Colquhouii. "X6xt evening, I " found Bennetts gone. I met him;on the railway station', and he, gave me nine watches, a signet'ring, which my mother returned. Detective Jones, said. Bennetts told • him lie sold a great deal of jewellery to a fancy goods importer in Wellington. He received a deposit of £lO, and was to get the balance' after it was valued. \ " 1 Detective-Sergeant A. B. Meiklejohn, who arretted Bennetts and Young at Palmerston 'North on September li; said he recovered jewellery in a suitcase in the room where they were staying. • ■ . • '' ' s " The jewellers who were robbed said their stocks were not insured, and the ! value of articles recovered . was £95 6s 3d. v.' • Detective-Sergeant' J. Trethewey, who prosecuted, said Bennetts volunteered admissions regarding five other burglaries. He took witness to the Auckland Domain, where a number of articles were : recovered from long grass. Labourer Charged r To Mr. Aekins, witness said Bennetts assisted the inquiry in every way. The only money accused received from sales of jewellery was £lO and some odd shillings from the sales of wristlet watches. • To Mr. Sullivan, witness said Colquhoun had a clear record, and was not the leader. He gave every assistance to the police. The three accused were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Colquhoun was granted bail of £IOO. A labourer, George Henry Doyle,, aged 23. who pleaded guilty to a charge of receiving jewellery valued at £7 os from Bennetts" at Wellington on September 14, was ordered to be de-' tained for-reformative purposes for a year. It was stated to.be his 28th conviction. „