BREAKING AND ENTERING

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12559, 23 September 1926, Page 9

BREAKING AND ENTERING

ADMITTED BY YOUNG MAN “HUNGRY AND UP AGAINST IT” COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE Unable to obtain employment, “up against it,” and hungry—these were the reasons given by Edward Ellis Edwards, aged 23, who pleaded guilty in the Magistrate's Court yesterday to charges of breaking and entering the premises of Dominion Motors, Ltd., Courtenay Place, on two occasions, and stealing motor accessories of a total value of £l7 11s 9d. Edwards also admitted entering the premises of C. Smith, Ltd., in Cuba street, and stealing clothing valued at £39 19s; also the theft of two motor tyres belonging to some person unknown. BURGLARIES ADMITTED Detective W. Hodges said that on September 11th he interviewed the accused with regard to two motor tyres which he had been trying to sell. The accused told him that he had bought them in Auckland from an unknown man in the street some weeks before. His explanation was not considered satisfactory, and he was charged with theft. Later the accused said he had found them at Auckland, and the same day he stated that he had stolen them from a car at Auckland six weeks before. On September 11th the accused had in his possession two of the articles produced in court. While he was being taken to his lodgings the accused -attempted to escape, but was recaptured. Back at the detective office, the accused said he had other stolen property at his lodgings, and when a search was made there most of the stolen goods were recovered. Edwards later Baid that he had stolen other goods from C. Smith’s, but had sold them, and had also stolen about £2 from the same place. "UP AGAINST IT” “Since I arrived in Wellington I have been up against it, and it was due to my being unable to obtain work and being hungry that I committed these offences,” said the accused in his statement made at the detective office. While he was;- sleeping out one night, he continued, he went to C. Smith’s premises in Cuba street and climbed up a fire escape and a drain pipe at the back of the building. Then he took a rope from the flagpole, and having removed a pane of glass from a skylight, lowered himself with the rope into the premises. The first burglary of the Dominion Motors premises was committed a leu nights later, the accused breaking a window and climbing in. On September 9th he returned to the premises, and stole a number of other articles. The accused pleaded guilty to all charges, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.