BREWERY ENTERED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 244, 15 October 1932, Page 6

BREWERY ENTERED

CULPRITS SENTENCED. U GAOL AT WELLINGTON. Ao comment t or excuse was offered by John Hayes, aged 58 years, or William Drennan, aged 30 years, when they were arrested by Constable Howes at midnight on Friday, October 7, on a charge of being found on premises at night without lawful cause. Both men were brought before Air. J. H. Salmon, S.M., at the Alagistratc’s Court at Wanganui yesterday morning. Hayes was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at the Wellington gaol and Drennan to three. The constable stated that when he had arrested the prisoners both were sober and knew what they were doing. Hayes and Drennan declared that they were drunk. Senior-Sergeant Capp said that at about 11.45 p.m. Constables Howes and Smith, accompanied by Air. Sidney Kendall of the staff of the brewery, went to the rear of the building and found Drennan in the act of entering the brewery. Dennan heard them coming, bolted back and locked the door and did not answer when asked by the constable what he was doiug there. On entering the building they found Hayes hiding behind a pile of cases. He did not answer when asked why he was there. Sidney Kendall said that when he unlocked the gate leading from the road and flashed a torch round they had seen a man near the door leading to the brewery. Neither of the prisoners had been given authority to enter the premises. Nothing had been missed. It appeared as if the men had pushed an old sliding door open to about IS inches and then squeezed through. “1 was very drunk to begin with,” said Hayes when asked whether he wished to say anything. “For the past eighteen months 1 had been working in the brewery collecting bottles and when I was coming home I saw a light in the yard so 1 went in for a drink. ’ ’ Asked how he had got into the building he replied that he did not know. A door had been open about a foot and he had probably gone through the gapAs a man 58 years of ago ho would g have been unable to climb the sevenfoot fence around the building. “There is one new element, in this and that is the drunkenness,” observed Mr. Salmon. “Both men were sober and knew what they were doing,’’ replied Constable Howes. Senior-Sergeant Capp said that Hayes had many previous convictions against, him. Drennan also had been convicted before. Both pleaded guilty to entering the building. Sentences were imposed as above.