FOUR CHARGES

Evening Post, Issue 37, 12 August 1936, Page 11

FOUR CHARGES

BREAKING AND ENTERING

"CATCH" AT LOWER HUTT

The story of a neat "catch" of a man who had just broken into his house was told by a Lower Hutt resident before Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court today, when William Joseph Gee, alias Bain, a baker and cook, aged 32, appeared on four charges of breaking and entering. The charges were as follows:—On August 4, breaking and entering by night the dwelling-house of lan Charles Nairn, at 32 Wesley Road; on August 5, breaking and entering the house of Sydney Hugh Kirkcaldie, at 19 Talavera Terrace, and stealing articles and money of a total value of 16s; on August 7, at Lower Hutt, breaking and entering by day the dwelling of Charles Walters, Park Avenue, and stealing 5s 6d; and on August 7, at Lower Hutt, breaking and entering by day the dwelling of Harry Tilbury, Park Avenue, and stealing about 10s. Detective-Sergeant L. B. Revell conducted the prosecution. On a charge o£ stealing a bicycle, valued at £7, from Palmerston North, the accused was remanded to appear there on August 17. ' • ■ • lan Charles Nairn said that he left his home at 8.30 a.m. on August 4, leaving one window unlocked. "When he returned at 9.30 p.m. he saw mud on the floor in the form of wet footprints. Nothing was missing. Sydney Hugh Kirkcaldie stated that he left his dwelling at 8 a.m. on August 5, after making everything secure. On his return at about 11 p.m. certain articles and money, mostly in small change, were missed. Harry Tilbury said that on the afternoon of August 7 he was working in his garden and saw the accused in front of his house. The accused went out of the gate. Witness entered his house, and, found between 9s and 10s missing from his room. He went down the road after the accused in his car, and caught him about a mile away. Witness asked him why he had been hanging about the house. The accused made -no reply to questions, but on threat of arrest, handed witness 4s lOd. When he was later arrested, he said: "Thanks very much for letting me off." Eric Walters said that on the afternoon of August-7 his house was unoccupied between 1 and 2.30. He returned at 2.30, and found that 5s 6d in money and several articles were missing. All doors and windows were locked. Constable C. E. Tanner said that about 3 p.m. on August 7, as a result of a complaint from Tilbury, he went to High Street, Lower Hutt, where the accused was: pointed out. The articles produced in court, including the sum of £1 6s lid, were found in his possession, as ■ well as a pair of rubber gloves, a torch, and a piece of hooked wire.. Witness read a statement by the accused admitting guilt, and saying that when he was in Nairn's house he heard a key turn in the lock immediately after he entered; he therefore escaped without taking anything. . The accused pleaded guilty, and was ■committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. \ p