Blackmail Claim Not Accepted

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30469, 17 June 1964, Page 7

Blackmail Claim Not Accepted

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 16. “You concocted a melodramatic tale about threats to your daughter and to the people you were boarding with, but I cannot accept that you were blackmailed,” Mr Justice Tomkins told Horace Robert Carter, aged 42, bus driver, in the Supreme Court today.

Carter, who had pleaded! guilty in the Lower Hutt Magistrate’s Court to the theft of £537 and two money bags valued at £lO each from the Railways’ Road Services, was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment Mr N. R. Taylor appeared for the accused and Mr J. H. C. Larsen for the Crown. His Honour said the crime had been committeed by Carter while he was a trusted servant of the Railways’ Road Services. “You were the inside criminal and one of a gang of three. Knowing the exact routine, you gave that information to your confederates to enable your employers to be robbed, and expecting a share of it yourself. Meticulous “There was meticulous preparation and considerable cunning in the crime. You got ignition keys for four cars you knew were parked all day at Melling Station and arranged to hide your own car near there. “You made careful plans to see that a clerk accompanied you upstairs. Then there was a sham assault on you and the clerk found you

moaning on the floor and the bags of money gone. You made a remarkably quick recovery from the assault. “You were questioned closely by the police and disclaimed any complicity or knowledge of the matter. In spite of all the inquiries by the police, none of the stolen money nor the bags have been found and you denied having got any share. The takings in your own bus began to contain less and less notes until they were all silver. Then the notes began to appear again. Foiled “You next planned a payroll robbery for May 21, and got more ignition keys for cars at Melling. Again you took your confederates round and showed them the layout. That robbery was foiled only because a detective was seen nearby. “You say you have been acting under threats to your own or your daughter’s safety. But I cannot accept that you were blackmailed. All your actions were consistent with free and voluntary planning to make a robbery of some thousands of pounds from your employers.”