Theft Of Pills Admitted

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31117, 21 July 1966, Page 18

Theft Of Pills Admitted

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, July 20. A charge of stealing 207 packets of oral contraceptive pills worth £176 16s 8d was admitted by Hayo Kiffen, aged 27, a cargo worker, in the Magistrate’s Court today. Kiffen was remanded in custody to July 27 for a probation report and sentence by Mr M. B. Scully, S.M. Detective-Sergeant B. A. Toomey said that on June 22 it was found that 22 cartons out of a consignment of 639 had been stolen from a cargo shed on the wharves. Kiffen was located after inquiries. He said he and another had stolen the cartons. They had sold most of them for £54 to a chemist living in the Wellington district Kiffen received £23.

Kiffen also admitted posting two of the cartons for an illicit sale. All cartons but these two had been recovered. Sergeant Toomey said the pills were a registered drug and could be obtained only on a doctor’s prescription. “The authorities are alarmed that these drugs were stolen and are in circulation because of the accused’s actions.” A total of 7560 pills had been stolen. Two others appeared in

court on charges of receiving quantities of oral contraceptives. Thomas Frederick Booth, aged 27, a watersider, and Eric Raymond Hargraves, aged 42, a chemist, were each charged separately with receiving 147 packets worth £ll5 16s Bd. No pleas were taken. Both were remanded for one week on bail of £l5O, with a similar surety.