THEFT OF LIQUOR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25798, 20 March 1945, Page 6

THEFT OF LIQUOR

TWO YOUTHS CHARGED COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE In the City Police Court yesterday two youths pleaded guilty to charges of breaking, entering, and theft. They were Harold William Hodgson (Mr J. S. D. More), a labourer, aged 18, and William Joseph Salmon (Mr C. H. Stevens), a tinsmith’s apprentice, aged 19. The value d the stolen goods amounted to £2B 0s Id, and damage to locks and doors to £4. Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M., presided. The case for the police was conducted by Chief Detective T. Y. Hall. Harold Christopher Carter, manager of Messrs R. Powley and Co., merchants, of 24 Hope street, said that on Saturday, March 10, on arrival .at the firm’s warehouse he had found evidence of the office having been ransacked and the wine room entered. He valued the liquor and articles missing at £2B 0s Id, and the damage to the locks and doors at £4. The value of the property recovered by the police was assessed at £lO 13s 6d, said witness. Evidence was< also given by Frank Whitely Simpson, an assistant engineer of the company, who said that after his arrival at work on March 10 he had informed Mr Carter that the warehouse had been entered. Detective C. G. Evans said that in his investigations he found reasons for the belief that the accused had clambered over the roofs from Carroll street and climbed down a drainpipe. entering the premises of Messrs Powley and Co. by means of a window. He later visited a fiat in Carroll street, where he found the accused asleep in a bedroom. Two girls, aged 15 and 16, were also present. The accused admitted that they had entered the warehouse, and witness found a quantity of the stolen liquor in the flat. Each had made a voluntary statement. They had consumed some of the liquor at the warehouse and later at the flat. The accused were remanded in custody to appear in the Supreme Court for sentence.