Family Trio Denies Big Tobacco Theft

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 177, 17 October 1927, Page 9

Family Trio Denies Big Tobacco Theft

ANZAC AVENUE BURGLARY A STOPPED CHEQUE Two brothers and the son-in-law of one of them, stood in the dock at the Police Court to-day charged with breaking and entering and theft. They were Francis Harry Kae, aged 31, and Ernest Clifford Rae. aged 43. who were arrested at Whangarei, and Kenneth McQuoid, aged 25. They were charged with breaking and entering the warehouse of Irving. Clarke and Co., Anzac Avenue, anil stealing cigarettes and tobacco valued at £7B 4s. Evidence was given as to the method by which the thieves gained admission to the building. They had clambered over a fence, through wire entanglements, and then broken door-locks. McQuoid, in a statement, said the Raes lived with him. They came to his house one morning with a truckload of cigarettes and tobacco. Negotiations were opened with a tobacconist at St. Heliers Bay, and it was arranged to sell GO boxes of cigarettes to him at £1 a box. The cigarettes were taken out to St. Heliers in a taxi. The next day his father-in-law told him that the cheque they received in payment for the cigarettes had been stopped, and as the police were sifter him, he was going away. The three accused pleaded not guilty and were committed to the Supreme Court for trial.