MANY CRIMES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24101, 21 October 1941, Page 9

MANY CRIMES

SEA VOYAGE PLAN THEFT AND CONVERSIONS THREE YOUTHS SENTENCED Three youths, Keith Victor Jeffries, aged 17, Frederick Albert Mulier, aged 17, and Bruce Richard Phillips, aged 19, admitted a series of charges of car conversion and theft when they appeared before Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., yesterday. Jeffries and Phillips were concerned in the conversion of two cars valued at £l5O and £125, Mulier being charged jointly with them with the conversion of a car valued at £175. All three were charged with four thefts of goods, including a rifle and ammunition, a shotgun and other articles valued in all at £23 19s 6cL "The accused took a dinghy from the foreshore at >St. Mary's Bay on September 15, rowed out to launches and stole most of the goods mpntioned in the charges," said Detective-Sergeant Nalder. "They had previously arranged to take a launch and go to Norfolk Island, but in the darkness they were unable to find the launch they selected and abandoned the project." Travelled to Wellington

The accused then converted a car and drove it to Cambridge, where they ran out of petrol, Mr. Nalder continued. From there they travelled to Wellington by begging lifts and riding on trains when they could do so without paying a fare. All were in uniform at the time. After selling a stolen pair of binoculars in Wellington they came back to Auckland in the same fashion, and Muller left for a job at Putaruru. Mr. Nalder then described a further series of offences by Jeffries and Phillips which took them to the Whangaroi district. Both had been before the Children's Court on more than one occasion and had been placed under the care of the State. Both had also been in the Territorial Forces, but had left without leave. Magistrate's Comment "You have got your foot on the threshold and have not gone too far," said the magistrate to Muller who was sentenced to two years' pronation and ordered to make restitution of £4 6s 6d and the amount of another debt. To Jeffries and Phillips the magistrate said the.ir choice of a mode of life was a matter for regret. On the first of the conversion charges they were sentenced to two years in a Borstal institution, and on the others convicted and discharged.