BOYS HOLD UP PAY CAR

Southland Times, Issue 24887, 29 October 1942, Page 4

BOYS HOLD UP PAY CAR

Failure Of Robbery Attempt (P.A.) AUCKLAND, October 28. “This was really an armed holdup,” said Detective-Sergeant Trethewey when two boys were jointly charged in the Children’s Court before Mr J. H. Luxford, S.M., with having assaulted Robert John Quested with intent to rob him at Otahuhu on October 15 and with the theft of a pair of number-plates on the previous day. .DetectiveSergeant Trethewey said the Police Department was of the opinion that it was a case to go before the Supreme Court. Messrs Matthews and Snedden appeared for the boys, who pleaded guilty. The two accused, aged 16| years and 16 years 10 months, had formed the idea of holding-up the Otahuhu Railway Workshops pay-roll car, said Detective-Sergeant Trethewey.. One of the boys, a railway employee, bought a .22 repeating rifle and 100 rounds of ammunition the day before the offence. The rifle was bought and registered in the normal way. On the morning of October 15 the boy borrowed his father’s motor-car on which were placed the stolen licence plates, and with his accomplice, a cabinetmaker’s apprentice, drove in front of the payroll car, which stopped in Favona road where the boys had ordered it to stop. One of the boys got out of their car, took a part from the pay-roll car to dismantle it and attempted to steal £lO,OOO contained in the pay-roll car, while the other boy held a rifle. RIFLE LOADED The rifle was found to contain 11 rounds, said the detective-sergeant. One of the boys had used force and had struck a man in the car with a spanner. When the boy with the rifle saw they were not succeeding he called his friend back and they drove away. The boys had been disguised, both wearing sun glasses and scarves over their faces. Both boys were equally guilty, said Mr Matthews. The boy with the rifle had not covered the pay-roll car with the rifle and he had not demonstrated it in a menacing way. The rifle had been lying through the open windshield of the car and he had one hand on it. The boys who had excellent records at school and whose parents were of immaculate decency, were after all only children, and he asked for them to be dealt with by the Children’s Court, which was more concerned with bringing them out as decent citizens than with the question of punishment. He doubted if the Borstal would do them good as they were already industrious boys with trades. It was gratifying that their first such act should have been so completely bowled out, said Mr Matthews. The boys had been completely unable to explain why they did it. They had a small cabinetmaking workshop where they turned out fine saleable goods in their spare time, and they might have got the get-rich-quick idea to set up their small factory. WELFARE OFFICER’S APPEAL Mr Snedden supported Mr Matthews’s remarks and stated that the boy for whom he appeared had stated that they certainly had no intention of using the gun. A request that the boys be dealt with in the Children’s Court was made by Mr A. E. Wishart, boys’ welfare officer. They were decent lads who had made a grave blunder, he said. He had seen the products of their workshop and they were men in craftsmanship. One boy’s mother was a widow. Some kind of madness must have come over them. The Magistrate: Would it not be more badness?

Mr Wishart asked for the leniency of the Court so that they could come back to decent citizenship. He realized he was asking something big. j Evidence was given about the boys characters, their work and home life by their parents and employer and a stationmaster. The car had been borrowed with parental consent. Neither of the boys had given any previous trouble to his parents. “It is more a case for the Child Welfare Department than the Prisons Department,” said the Magistrate, who committed the boys to the care of the State. They would be under the care of the superintendent of the Child Welfare Department. In due course they would come back to their people on licence. He ordered confiscation of the rifle.