SERIES OF BURGLARIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23006, 8 October 1936, Page 2

SERIES OF BURGLARIES

TWO YOUTHS BEFORE COURT COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE The sequel to a series of petty burglaries which were committed in business houses in the city during August and September was heard in the City Police Court yesterday, when Stanley Gedrge James Murray, aged 19, and Rolfe Jefferson Shirreffs, aged 17, appeared before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., on nine charges of breaking and entering and theft, and two of breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime. Mr C. J. L. White appeared for the accused. The firms in respect of which charges were laid, together with the value of the stolen property, were: Cadbury, Fry, Hudson (£2 3s 6d); Waitaki Dairy Company (6s Id); John Mills and Co., Ltd. (2s); Otago Farmers' Co-operative Association (£1 4s 6d); Mercer and Mitchell (£3); R. Thompson, Ltd. (no amount specified); Jago, Biggs, Ltd. (£1 12s fid); Annie Louisa Ryan (£1 14s); and Sargood, Son and Ewen (£5 10s). Charges of breaking and entering the premises of Radiation (N.Z.), Ltd., and Keith Ramsay, Ltd., with intent to commit a crime, were also preferred. Evidence that the various premises had been locked and of the discovery that they had been broken into was tendered by James Hogg Gilkison (Radiation (N.Z.), Ltd.), William Theodore Newby, William Frank Self and George Cleveland Sanderson (Cadbury, Fry, Hudson, Ltd.), Gordon Campbell (Waitaki Dairy Company), William Fitzroy Spence (John Mill and Co.), Frederick Fastier (Otago Farmers' Co-operative Association), Frederick Cecil Swete (Mercer and Mitchell, Ltd.), John Edwin Jago (Jago, Biggs, Ltd.), Alexander Davidson Lawson . and Aeneas Henry M'Leod (Sargood, Son and Ewen), Annie Louisa Ryan, and Fanny Thompson. Detective Wells, who arrested the accused, produced signed statements in which they admitted the offences. Witness added that another youth who was implicated would be proceeded against in the Children's Court.

Both accused pleaded guilty to all charges and were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence, bail being allowed in 2ach case in a personal recognisance of £SO and a surety of a like amount, conditional on their reporting daily to the police.