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Melbourne business men, Donald Speed, 37, of Bruce Street, Toorak, managing director of Autoterms Ltd., Melbourne, and Allan Leslie Penrose, of Gardenvale Road, Caulfield, accountant, were committed for trial last night in the Darwin Police Court by Mr. J. Crang, S.M., on a theft charge.
They will stand trial at the next criminal sittings of the N.T. Supreme Court on the charge of having stolen 6,446 wireless valves valued at £4,295 from the Commonwealth at a disposals sale in Darwin last October.
Both men pleaded not guilty and reserved their defence. They were each allowed £500 bail in self and £500 surety.
The hearing was the first in the new Darwin Courthouse, and one of the strongest legal teams seen in Darwin for many years was present.
Mr. M. Ashkanasy, K.C., with Mr. R. V. Monahan, K.C., and Mr. B. Newell, instructed by V. Dimelow, of Melbourne, appeared for Speed. Mr. J. Lyons appeared for Penrose.
Crown Prosecutor was Mr. C. A. Sandery, of Adelaide, assisted by Mr. Edmunds, of the Crown Law Department, and Sgt. McCaffery, of N.T. Police.
Three trips by a 3cwt. utility were needed to bring the valves into the court as exhibits. They were stacked in the jury benches.
On Monday Mr. Sandery opened the prosecution with an outline of the Crown.... said the charge..... events at a Co[mmonwealth] Disposals sale of surp....... goods held in Darwin on October 15 and 16, 1947.
First witness for the prosecution was Allan Elliott Yelland, of Adelaide, a member of a firm of auctioneers in that city. He produced a catalogue which he said he compiled from the goods for sale at the October sale. He detailed the descriptions of the lots of valves.
He said he made a ........ what valves were...... what passed in, and what.... was obtained, and other details.
Cross-examined by Mr. Ashkanasy, Yelland said the shed SW1 was the biggest shed and up to 100 buyers were present during the sales. There was a road down the centre of the shed and he allowed three trucks at a time with..... loading parties to go....... shed. On the day after..... the 17th, a man nam.......... sen had reported large discrepancies in the number of valves he had purchased. There was another complaint that 2000 shirts were missing from another buyer.
On October 17 Speed wanted an auctioneer's representative to be present in the afternoon because he wanted to load his goods, said Yelland. Yelland said people could have been taking goods out of shed SW1 before he arrived that lunch-time.
Yelland said in reply to Ashkanasy he did not know it had been arranged between Speed and the Waltham Trading Co. Ltd., Melbourne, that Walthams should buy wireless valves on Speed's behalf.
It had been the practise to knock down to Speed at the minimum price any goods for which there had not been a bid.
Yelland said he knew Speed as a big buyer at the sales and knew he had been buying wireless equipment.
Mr. Lyons cross-examined Yelland, and Yelland said he knew Penrose had been representing the Waltham Trading Co. at the disposal sale, and Penrose had been the biggest buyer of radio valves at the sale.
Next witness, Campbell Hutchinson Christie, of Darwin, salesman for the Commonwealth Disposals Commission at Darwin, said he too checked the goods for sale in shed SW1 last October, and after receiving information he went to the shed after the sale and found a number of valves missing.
John Gerald Howard, of Bondi, now unemployed and formerly a member of the RAAF stationed at Darwin, said he was one of a RAAF party assisting buyers to take delivery of good[sic] from SW1 last October. He said he was given certain papers by a man named Grant. Howard identified Speed and Penrose in Court as two men he had seen in SW1 the day after the sale.
Next witness, John William Digby, of Darwin, a RAAF LAC stationed here, said he too was one of the working party assisting buyers in the shed following the sale.
After lunch on the day following the sale he went to SW1 and saw Speed removing valve from under and on tables in the shed and putting them in the centre of the aisle. That operation took about 20 minutes.
He added Speed came across to him and asked him to place the valves on a motor truck for him. Digby said he did that and then Speed left.
During the same afternoon, Digby said, he saw Penrose move a couple of lots of valves into the centre of the aisle.
Cross-examined by Mr. Monahan, Digby said he thought the valves being shifted by Speed had been "told off" by other RAAF members of the party. He did not think Speed was "getting away with the valves."
Arthur Clive Cleverland, of Darwin, AC1 in the RAAF, attached Darwin, said he also was one of the RAAF party assisting buyers in shed SW1 on the day following the sales.
He was behind another RAAF man who, with the auctioneer's clerk, was checking off the goods sold. As the check was made the RAAF man would take the goods from the table and place them in the aisle. Cleverland would then take the articles from the aisle to where motor trucks were parked.
He was not able to keep pace with the checking and as a result there were heaps of articles still in the aisle.
Cleverland said that he saw Speed in the aisle at this stage. At first he just saw Speed standing there, but later saw him pulling cartons of valves from under and on top of tables, and he appeared to be inspecting them.
On several occasions, Cleverland said, when returning from delivering loads to the truck, Speed would put parcels of valves on the handtruck. That happened five or six times.
The RAAF man and the auctioneer's clerk were working ahead and Cleverland said he saw Speed and Penrose together. They appeared to be having a look at the valves. He saw Penrose pull some valves out, look at them and put them back.
Cleverland added he also saw Speed put some valves back. Penrose did not at any time put any valves on the handcart. Once, when loading the handcart, Cleverland was told by Speed to be careful of the valves.
Squadron Leader Eric John Patterson Dale of R.A.A.F. Darwin in charge of 9 Stores Depot, said 6446 valves were missing from the stores. They were valued at £4,295. Eoin Douglas Grant of Grant St., North Carlton, Victoria a radio engineer said he had been employed by Waltham Trading Co. Pty. Ltd. of Flinders Street, Melbourne, last year and had been instructed to come to Darwin in company with Penrose, an accountant employed by Walthams.
In Darwin Penrose told him he was prepared to go halves on everything purchased with Speed. He heard Penrose bidding at the sale and next day, after the sale ended, Grant was in shed SW1 with a R.A.A.F. man named Howard checking the purchases.
They checked the purchases from dockets and Penrose and Speed were there assisting.
Speed and Penrose were assisting in carrying the valves to the place where they were picked up by the truck. Grant said he signed a receipt for the goods and they were taken by lorry to Vestey's.
There the valves were shared between Speed and Penrose and Speed took his away on a lorry.
To Mr. Lyons Grant said he had not heard even a suggestion related to illegally obtaining the valves.
Grant said that he himself was charged at Darwin on October 30 with having stolen the valves.
He said it would be possible for a mixup to take place in the distribution of the valves in the shed. "It probably did," he added.
Detective John O'Conner, of Russel Street Police Station, Melbourne, told the magistrate he went to Speed's residence in Bruce Street, Toorak, at about 8 p.m. on December 9 in company with Detective Rosengreen.
Mr. Dimelow, Speeds solicitor, was present and Rosengreen asked to see Speed privately and Speed said, "What have I done now?" They left the room and Rosengreen produced the provisional warrant for the theft charge and Speed called out, "Val. Val. Come here please."
O'Conner said Dimelow re-entered and Speed said, "This is ridiculous." Rosengreen said, "Why it is ridiculous. You must have some idea why they have issued the warrant for your arrest."
Speed replied: "All I know is I went to Darwin to buy disposals stuff and apparently some radio valves were taken from the R.A.A.F. store. But the police discovered them before they left Darwin. As a matter of fact I was also there to buy radio valves but I did not touch a single valve or even a box one was in.
"Airforcemen did the loading. All I did was to provide trucks. I do know this however that the valves allegedly stolen are only worth 3d or 4d each," said Speed according to O'Conner.
O'Conner continued that at 9.30 a.m. on December 10 with Detective Rosengreen he went to Waltham Trading Co. Pty. Ltd. office and saw Penrose and read the provisional warrant.
Penrose said the warrant was not unexpected as Grant had wired from Darwin that he, Penrose, was suspect.
Later with Det. Sgt. McNab, of N.T. Police he went with Penrose to a Melbourne solicitor's office. The solicitor said Penrose would make a statement as he was innocent and had nothing to fear. Penrose then said he went to Darwin to purchase goods at the disposals sale on behalf of his firm and he had never known Speed before or never heard of him.
O'Conner said Penrose said he knew it was alleged more than three thousand valves were found in his store at Vestey's.
Cross-examined by Mr. Monahan, O'Conner said he knew of nothing against Speed in police records.
He denied he had said to a taxi driver named John Joseph James in Darwin this week, "Just as well you are not from Melbourne or you would be blacklisted for being of assistance to Speed." The driver had been present in the witness room during conversations but those words were never used said O'Conner.
O'Conner in reply to Mr. Lyons said Penrose was known by some senior Melbourne detectives as a good man. They had a very high opinion of him and would not think he "was in this."
Last Crown witness Det. Sgt. Eric Arthur McNab told how he recovered valves from a Department of Civil Aviation building on the R.A.A.F. drome. Speed said the parcels were his. There were about sixty in all and McNab took the valves out of them. The parcels had been addressed to "Speed, Autoterms, Melbourne."
Continuing McNab said he went to a store at Vestey's and found valves in various places.
Subsequently to[sic] went to the Hotel Darwin and buyers there told him the sales had been "topsy turvey" and he asked Speed did he "sling to the RAAF, boys" and Speed said "No".
When committed Speed said he had brought senior counsel and witnesses to Darwin at considerable expense to answer the charge but the prosecution had brought evidence of which he had not been notified and had intimated additional evidence would be brought at the trial so he reserved his defence.
Mr. Lyons, for Penrose, had submitted Penrose was in different role to Speed and should be discharged.
Source: Trove Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955) Friday 27 February 1948 Page 1
Source: Trove Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955) Friday 27 February 1948 Page 12