THE MAXIMUM.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 225, 23 September 1927, Page 9

THE MAXIMUM.

THREE MONTHS IN GAOL.

YOUTH WHO TOOK MOTOR CAR

PROBATION- REFUSED

The youth, Thomas John Stanway, who was found late on Thursday night sitting with a young woman in the rear seat'of a £600 motor car which he had "borrowed" from Orakei Road earlier in the evening, received the maximum sentence, three months' imprisonment, at the Police Court this morning for having converted the car to his own use. Mr. R. Coatee, ins£rueted by Stanway'g parents, appeared for him. He said that Stan way was only 1,9. His parents were most respectable people. He had beep working on a farm, and had come, to town on holiday. He was used to driving his uncle's car. On Thursday night he had yielded to temptation when he took Mr. Phillips' car. Counsel suggested that if Stanway was placed on probation he could immediately return to the country resume work on the farm. This was his first offence.

' TThe probation officer, Mr. W. J. Campbell, sent for by the magistrate, Mr. F. K. Hunt, said that he could not' make any recommendation in Stanway's case. He must have known by reading the papers that four youths had only the day before been sentenced to 12 months' 'detention in the Borstal institution for taking motor cars, yet he deliberately took the car.

"That is so' , said Mr. Hunt. "The ink an 'the> newspapers was hardly dry when Stanway deliberately stole the car. I'm not going to give him probation. Already there is talk in the town that the sentences of three months are insufficient for-these offences. I will give him three months' imprisonment, and will direct that he be kept strictly apart from other, prisoners', at the gaol. This sort of crime is very difficult to detect, and it is only by chance that men are caught taking cars."

Mr. Coatee: Will your Worship reconsider your decision and send him to the Borstal? '

Mr. Hunt: No. The Borstal is for reformation purposes and to teach youths a trade. The reason I sent the other four youths who took cars to the Borstal was that they took a number of cars extending over a long period. Counsel: Will you reduce,the sentence to one month, then?

Mr. Hunt: No, I won't do that either. If I did I would not be doing my duty tor the public, and I would be simply laughed at.