"A HOPELESS CASE."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 12

"A HOPELESS CASE."

LONG LIST OF CONVICTIONS.

ELDERLY MAX'S RECORD OF CRIME.

Three years' imprisonment on each count, the terms to be concurrent, was the sentence imposed at the Supreme Court upon Ernest Edw. Cox, an elderly man who had been found guilty of breaking and entering and theft. Cox, in asking for leniencv, said that he wished the chance to lead a better life, and pleaded that he had been drinking heavily. Mr. Meredith said the case appeared to be a perfectly hopeless one. The man had 87 convictions for all classees of offences, although none was of as serious a nature as the present case. Many were for drunkenness and vagabondage, and wre spreead at frquent periods over the past fifteen years. Any chance that might be given the prisoner now did not promise to be of much avail. The man was a nuisance to the public. "I am afraid the case is a hopeless one," agreed Mr. Justice Smith. "The best thing in your interests is that you should go to prison for a considerably time so that vou can regain the power of self-control"

A formal order was made for the return of the stolen property which was at preseent in th hands of the police.