PARENTS SUFFER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 17, 20 January 1934, Page 6 (Supplement)

PARENTS SUFFER.

ENGLISH LAW TANGLE

YOUTH'S MOTORING OFFENCES SAFE FROM IMPRISONMENT Under British law parents or guardians are in danger of being sent to prison for motoring offences committed by their children or wards. This is due to the grave oversight just discovered in the Children and Young Persons Act, which has been in force since November last. The measure raises the age of "young persons" to seventeen and stipulates that only young persons against whom certificates of unruliness or depravity can be granted may be sent to prison. While Parliament -was considering the Act, it appears to have been overlooked that a large proportion of prosecutions relating to motoring offences involve youths under seventeen —a license to drive a motor cycle may be obtained at sixteen. It is in dealing with cases of this nature that magistrates have discovered the flaw in the law. How Innocent Suffer. Simply put, the position is that one Act of Parliament —the Road Traffic Act provides penalties in respect of certain offences, and that another Act—the Children Act—renders their imposition on the offenders impossible. The Children Act enables those penalties, however, to be transferred to persons who are entirely innocent and who in no way were parties to the offences. A Tecent case illustrates the serious position that has arisen. A boy of sixteen pleaded guilty to several motoring offences, and a Juvenile Court imposed certain penalties. Under the Road Traffic Act, extremely heavy fines, imprisonment, or both, could be inflicted for these offences. But the magistrates, unable to regard the boy as "depraved," could not send him to prison; nor could they fix the usual alternative of a term of imprisonment in default of payment of the fines, for that would have violated the declared purpose of the Children Act. Drastic Powers. The young defendant could not pay the fine, and therefore, so far as he was concerned, the law defied. The magistrates, however, possess certain drastic powers. Section 55 of the Act enables them to order a fine to be paid by the young defendant's parent or guardian; and if the parent or guardian defaults, he or she can be sent to prison. The widespread injustice which may be done in 6uch circumstances is made clear when it is remembered that many young persons in a position to commit motoring offences do not live with their parents. In such cases the parents' liability is in no way diminished. There are thousands of widows whose young sons use motor cycles. Should these boys commit an offence, their mothers are in peril of having their homes sold up to satisfy the fines imposed or, in default, go to prison. Parents' Anxiety. In 1931 more than 8000 children, a large number of whom could not pay the fines imposed upon them, were sent to prison. It was to prevent imprisonment in such circumstances that the new Act was passed. It is understood that the attention 'of Parliament is to be brought to the difficulties with which magistrates and parents alike are now confronted.