POLICE COURT NEWS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10536, 12 March 1920, Page 2

POLICE COURT NEWS

THEFTS BY WATERSIDERS ONE MAN SENT TO GAOL. A sentence of fourteen days’ imprisonment with hard labour was imposed on a waterside worker, Thomas Daniel Ryan, hy Mr E. Page, S.M., at the Police Court yesterday, for stealing a, ham valued at 255. Detective-Sergeant Lewis said the accused (for whom 'Mr C. A. L. Treadwell appeared) had been apprehended on Tuesday night by. Detective Tricklebank. He had resisted violently, find when overcome, refused to give any information about himself. Subsequently, it was ascertained that, in November, 1910, at Sydney, he was convicted under the name of Edward Ryan of stealing a postal packet and of misappropriating public moneys. For those offences he was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment, but the warrant was suspended under a provision of the Crimes Act. In February, 1914, at Wellington, he was sentenced to two years’ reformative treatment on two charges of forgery. Counsel, in support of a plea for leniency, pointed out that the last offence was seven years old, and that in the meantime Ryan had married and led a respectable life. The magistrate remarked that it was not a case for a fine, as the accused had previously been convicted on four occasions. FINED FOR STEALING TEA. A second watersider, Walter Parker (Mr W. G. Mellish) was charged with stealing 31b of ,tea, valued at ss, the property of the Wellington Harbour Board. For the prosecution it was stated that the accused was employed _in K shed packing tea ex the Westralia. Several of the chests had been damaged, with the result that a quantity of tea was scattered about the floor. Parker gahered some of this together and was taking it home when accosted by a police officer. It’was the usual custom of the Harbour Board employees to salve as much of such freight as possible.

Counsel asked that the information b© dismissed as trivial on the ground that the accused, seeing the tea being trampled underfoot, considered it to be abandoned.

After Darker had given evidence on the lines of Mr Mellish’s statement, the magistrate said he could nob accept the explanation. The accused would bo convicted, but in view of his previous good character, a term of imprisonment would not be imposed. He would be fined £5. “A BAD CASE.” That he assaulted and robbed Alfred W. Kirkland of £1 ISs 6d, a tiepin, and papers, was a charge preferred against Harold Coley, a young man of good appearance.

.Detective-Sergeant Lewis, in asking for a remand until Thursday, said it was a very bad case of assault and robbery of a, drunken man. Detective Tricklebank had noticed two men, one drunk and one sober, enter a dark and isolated place. Shortly afterwards a sound as of someone being punched came from the same direction. Upon investigating he found one man bending over another, who was lying on the ground. The former piado off, but was overtaken after a short chase. They then returned to the fallen man, and it was discovered that he had been robbed and was in an unconscious condition.

The remand was granted, an application for bail being refused.