King Cobra pair guilty

Two King Cobra gang members have been convicted of sending the police on a wild goose chase after the armed hold-up of a Newmarket jewellers.

Paul Mark Golding and Ione Purcell, both of New Lynn, were yesterday found guilty by a jury in the High Court at Auckland of conspiring with others to obstruct the course of justice by wilfully misleading police about who robbed About Time in Broadway on December 12, 1998.

Justice Willie Young remanded them on bail for sentencing next month.

More than $350,000 worth of gems, jewellery and watches were taken in the raid. Only five pieces were recovered.

Prosecutors Christine Gordon and Deborah Marshall maintained that Golding, a gang chief, had indirectly been in touch with Purcell in Auckland Prison at Paremoremo and told him to contact police to name another man, Joe Kera, as one of the robbers.

Mr Kera had nothing to do with the robbery, but police watched and investigated him. In the meantime, most of the haul was disposed of.

Outside court, inquiry head Detective Sergeant Kevin Tiernan said: "It certainly put us off the trail for about three days ... but once we had eliminated Kera it focused our attention more strongly on the King Cobras."

Last October, gang member Vave Schwenke admitted being the gunman and another Cobra man, Tonga Fa'apoi, admitted disposing of a getaway vehicle. The jury was unaware that Golding had been charged with planning the robbery but was discharged due to lack of evidence and acquitted.

Evidence was given this week that Schwenke had rung Golding's cellphone before and after the robbery.

The Crown maintained that Golding was on the other end of the phone, but Golding's lawyer, Maria Pecotic, said it could have been anyone.

The jury knew that About Time had previously been robbed by King Cobra members in 1996. But they were unaware that Purcell had been the "bagman" in the raid, for which he was serving time in Paremoremo when the second robbery occurred in 1998.

The 1996 gunman was Gary Caples, another King Cobra member.

It was possibly through visiting him or other Cobra members in Paremoremo, the Crown said, that Golding told Purcell what to tell police to put them on the wrong trail. Purcell's lawyer, Allan Roberts, told the jury that by 1998 his client had cut his ties with the King Cobras.