HEAVY PENALTIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 239, 9 October 1935, Page 10

HEAVY PENALTIES.

CONVERSION OF CARS. AMENDMENTS TO ACT. TWO YEARS' IMPRISONMENT. (liy Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The penalties for unlawful conversion of motor cars under the terms of the Police Offences Act of 1027 have been so nominal that motorists have for years been urging a drastic revision of the scale. The revision, contained in an amending bill introduced in the House of Representatives this afternoon by Governor's message, is drastic, for the old maximum penalty of £20, or three months' imprisonment, may under certain conditions become a fine of £200 or imprisonment for two years, and it may include both fine and imprisonment.

It is declared an offence to take without colour of right, but not so as to be guilty of theft under the Crimes Act, any motor car or other vehicle of any description, any launch, boat or vessel, any aircraft, or any part of the enumerated articles, and any horse. If the accused perstn is charged with an indictable offence, and appears before justices, electing to be dealt with by them, the justices may in their discretion deal with the case, and they are empowered on summary conviction for an indictable offence to impose a fine of .€IOO or imprisonment for one year, or impose both tine and imprisonment. Non-indictable Offence. Where there is a sum..iary conviction for a non-indictable offence under the Act, the maximum line is to be £50 or three months' imprisonment. Where the accused is convicted after indictment in the Supreme Court, the maximum penalty is £200 or two years' imprisonment, and the Court has power to inflict both fine and imprisonment.

The old law limited the power of the Courts to award djwnaj, s in respect to loss occasioned through the conversion, the maximum sum being £20, but the proposed amendment enables the Courts to order the convicted person, in addition to any fine, to pay to the owner a sum not exceeding the estimated value of the tiling- taken or converted, by way of compensation for any damage arising out of the unlawful conversion. This order will not affect the right to recover by civil process any damages in excess of the amount so awarded.

A clause of general application provides for a penalty of £20 for any person who 111 any statement to the police alleges, contrary to fact and without a genuine belief in the truth of his statement, that a crime has been committed.

Some minor amendments are bein°made in the provisions empowering the Courts to charge against an offender any cost cf his hospital and medical expenses arising out of arr:st in a state 01 drunkenness.