Four Years For Hold-up Men

NZ Truth, Issue 1198, 15 November 1928, Page 10

Four Years For Hold-up Men

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.) WHEN it came to the point of going before a jury to answer the serious charges against them of robbing and assaulting George Pearce and his wife at Mt. Eden, the two hold-up men, Roy Edward Trask and. Norman Travers, decided they had better plead guilty — and they did. When they appeared before Judge Smith at Auckland for sentence, the surprising information was forthcoming that Trask had been sent over from Australia to look after his father, who was fond of the bottle. The result of his ministrations was that both father and son found" themselves m serious trouble. The story of the daring hold-up and assault has already been fully recounted m the columns of "N.Z. Truth" and there is now little to ad.d except to say that Lawyer' Schramm put up an earnest plea for leniency. No revolver had been used m the hold-up, as was alleged, he said. Describing the affair as having been conducted after the manner of an American hold-up, the judge remarked that both men wanted a lesson. ' They got it when they were sentenced to two years' imprisonment, to be followed by reformative detention for not more than two years.