DARWIN, Wednesday. - When the radio valves case was resumed to-day, a witness, a former member of the R.A.A.F., who was on duty at Shed S.W.1 to assist buyers to take delivery of goods, said he saw the two accused in the shed handle a number of cartons. Later they gave £1 to staff men to be "split up" among the party.
Donald Speed (37), of Bruce St., Toorak, manager of Autoterms Ltd., Melbourne, and Allan Leslie Penrose, of Gardenvale Road, Caulfield, accountant, have been charged with the larceny of 6446 valves, valued at £4295, from the Commonwealth in Darwin on October 17 last year.
The airman, John Gerald Howard, of Bondi, said there was great confusion in the shed at the time. A lot of containers in which goods were placed were second-hand, with numbers, letters and markings on them from previous occasions. He saw Speed and Penrose enter the shed, and saw them handling cartons. They could have been examining the goods.
Source: Trove Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954) Thursday 26 February 1948 Page 15