SERIES OF CHARGES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24715, 18 September 1941, Page 9

SERIES OF CHARGES

YOUTH BEFORE COURT REMANDED IN CUSTODY Two further charges of theft and two of receiving stolen property were brought against a youth named Robert Walker, aged 19, who appeared for sentence in the City Police Court yesterday on a charge of having stolen a quantity of chocolates from Messrs Mackintosh Caley Phoenix. Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., was on the bench. The accused did not admit having received 20 packets of razor blades knowing them to be stolen, but he pleaded guilty to a charge of receiving an angle sight, this information being substituted by the police for one of stealing the sight, which was taken from Burnham military camp. The charges of theft involved a wristlet watch and a tape measure, and to both of these counts the accused pleaded not guilty. Evidence on the theft charges was given by the owners of the watch and the tape measure, and by Acting Detective Marshall, who found the articles in the course of a search of the accused's room. The accused, witness said, maintained that he had found both articles.

The magistrate said that even accepting the accused's own statement that he had found the measure and the watch, he was still guilty of theft, as the names of the owners were on both articles, and he had taken no steps to return them. The charge of receiving 20 packets of razor blades was dismissed. On all the other counts convictions were entered, and the accused was ordered to be remanded in custody until Monday next.