STORY OF ROBBERY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 November 1939, Page 7

STORY OF ROBBERY

ATTACK ON PAY CLERK. ACCUSED COMMITTED FjDR SENTENCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. A robbery with violence, in the new M.L.C. building at the corner of Hunter’Street. end Lambton Quay, on November 2, was described in the Magistrate's Court. Wellington, yesterday, when Robert Milton. labourer, aged 39, and Anthony Bradford, heating engineer. aged 25, appeared before Mr Luxlord, S.M. They were charged with robbing W. E. Parr of about £250, using personal violence. Both pleaded guilty and were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. William Edwin Parr, a pay clerk employed by W. M. Angus. Limited, at Wellington, said that the firm were contractors for the new M.L.C. building. Both accused were employed or. the building by a sub-contracting firm for about two months before October. Witness knew them well by sight. He always took the pay for his firm's men to the buildings on Thursday afternoons, and he did so on November 2, carrying £267 13s 8d in a small leather brief bag. He entered the building by the main entrance and walked toward the stairs, which were set back slightly and hidden by a wall. The passage was fairly dark. He saw Milton standing against the wall at the foot of the stairs. As soon as he saw him. Milton attacked him and grabbed him round the neck, trying to pull him into a cupboard behind the stairs. Bradford approached from behind. Witness called out. but was stopped by one of the men, who put a hand over his mouth. They dragged him under the stairs, hitting him. Witness held on to the bag as long as he could, but he became semi-conscious and lost his grip on it. Milton and Bradford left the building with the bag. He sent men working outside after them, and they brought the two accused back. The bag was taken from them, but they escaped before they could be handed over to the police. Witness said he received fairly severe head injuries, necessitating hospital attention.