£3788 WOOL THEFT

Marlborough Express, Volume 87, Issue 19, 23 January 1952, Page 2

£3788 WOOL THEFT

Two Men Plead Guilty COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE

P.A.

NAPIER, Jan. 22.

Admitting a series of wool thefts in several North Island farming districts last October and November, two young men were today committed to the Supreme Court, Wellington, for sentence. They appeared today before justices of the peace in the Magistrate's C'ourt, Napier. The men jointly faced 15 charges of stealing wool, wool packs and a wool press of a total value of £3788. Accused are Keith Anthony McGowan, aged 30, labourer and. stockbuyer, Napier, and Warren Handinge, aged 28, casual labourer, of no fixed abode. McGowan also pleaded guilty to a charge of escaping from the Napier Prison on December 17 last. On this charge, too, he was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. For the police it was stated that McGowan and two other men escaped

from the gaol while being held on remand. Two days later a poiice party searching in the Havelock North area fornid McGowan hiding in a hedge. He made off, but was captured after a brief chase. Before the first evidence was taken the court adjourned to enable the Bench, defence counsel, and witnesses ■ • to* examine the exhibits^ — mostly wool and woolpacks — which were piled high on two large trucks outside the courthouse. Evidence of having found that wool and woolpacks were missing from their sheds was given by the farmers concerned, who identified the woolpacks exhibited as being their property.

Nelson James Scown and Hellyer McDonald gave evidence of having seen a truck similar to one exhibited outside the court parked near their properties. McDonald was looking after McCarthy's farm during his absence. Harry Athony McKinley, woolbuyer, gave evidence of having brought quantities of wool from accused. Sergeant Euan Rippin, Napier, said he and Detective Sergeant Reid took possession at Takapuna of a truck which had been abandoned with

three bales of wool on the deck and also five part bales and 16 new wool packs. The truck was registered in the names of the two accused. Sergeant Rippin said that -on November 28 at the Napier police station McGowan invited the witness and Detective Sergeant Reid to accompany him to Havelock North, where, he said, he rented a shed under the name of Newton. In the shed, situated behind a house on the Napier-Havelock main highway the accused opened a door and showed the witness and Detec- ! tive Sergeant Reid 12S bales of wool. McGowan said that this wool and a press were the balance of thefts committed by himself and another person. Sergeant Rippin produced 16 statements which he said he had taken from Hardinge 011 various dates and in which Hardinge had admitted taking part in the alleged thefts. Hardinge had signed the statements

as being correct. "A FAIR RUN" Detective Sergeant Andrew Reid said that when McGowan was apprehended on the morning of November 28 he said, "I knew the game was up when we left our truck at Takapuna. We had a fair run." Later the same day McGowan volunteered a statement admitting the theft of wool from Scown at Hurlyville. Later he made more statements admitting the thefts outlined in the charges. In one statement McGowan said that when he and Hardinge were returning from Hurlyville to Havelock North on the night of November 27 they saw a man standing on the road on a hill near Waipukurau. The man signalled them to stop, but, , realising he was a policeman, McGowan said he drove past him. The

policeman gave chase in a car, and at Takapuna the two men abandoned the truck and made off across country, McGowan was captured. McGowan's statements revealed that most of the thefts took place in the early morning, generally around 3 a.m. In answer to Mr Langley, Detective Sergeant Reid said that the value placed on the wool in the charges was the value placed on it by the farmers concerned at the time the wool was stolen.