UNENVIABLE RECORDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 98, 27 April 1922, Page 7

UNENVIABLE RECORDS.

YOUTHS' CRIMINAL CAREERS. : An extraordinary case of two youths who had qualified to be claesed a? habitual criminals before they were out of their "teens" came before Mr. .Tn«t.:ce , Reed at the Supreme Court yesterday. They were Frank Joseph Wood ( 18) and HaTold Joseph Whittle (19), who appeared for breaking, entering end theft. His Honor remarked that Whittle had gone to an industrial school at three years of age, and Wood had been committed to a like institution at fourteen, and both had committeed a series of offences at intervals when they bad absconded, or had been released on probation. Their latest addition to the list occurred last March, when both met in 'Auckland, Where they' were working, being on probation. They stole a motor car at Frankton, drove to Auckland, where a theft from a launch was committed, and, abandoning the car, went on to Huarau, where they annexed two horsee and rode to Paparoa, to be caught in the act of breaking into a etore. Although the accused had qualified to be declared habitual criminals, his Honor hesitated, on account of their youth, to so brand them, and allowed them a last chance to pull up by sentencing them to five years' reformatory detention.