A TOO COMMON OFFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 136, 10 June 1926, Page 9

A TOO COMMON OFFENCE.

THEFTS OF PUBLIC MONEY., i PROBATION REFUSED. TOLERANCE DETRIMENTAL. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. In the Supreme Court, before his Honor the Chief Justice (Hon. C. P. Skerrett), Robert Stanley Hanna pleaded guilty to theft of moneys as a servant of the Masterton County Council, j amounting to over £300. ) Mr. Watson, for accused, said he was i a married man with two email children, , and hitherto had borne a blameless char-. acter. ' The reasons for his defalcations ! were the pressing need of a younger ■ brother, for whom accused had borrowed , on his own house on mortgage, and also j pressing by Waihi creditors for old debts. The judge said that while there were circumstances that would incline him to give probation, he felt it to be impossible. A judge's duty was to make punishment a' deterrent. The thefts had taken place during two years while Hanna was receiving a salary of £550 a \ year. The sentence would be eighteen months' reformative detention. Refusing probation in the case of George Thorns, who pleaded guilty to two charges of theft as a postal servant of sums involving £100, his Honor said peculations of moneys, both public and private, were far too common, and tolerance of them must be detrimental to the public interest. He imposed a sentence of twelve months' reformative treatment.