CATTLE THEFT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 100, 29 April 1937, Page 10

CATTLE THEFT.

six Months in gaol.

SHAREMILKER'S OFFENCE.

« deliberate DISHONESTY."

Criticising prisoner's offence as aj deliberate act of dishonesty, and one in which he had the opportunity to reconsider the consequences, Mr. Justice Fair this morning sentenced Harold Malcolm, age<l 42, sharemilker, to six months' imprisonment for the theft of 12 Jersey cows. The offence took place early this month at Tokoroa, in the Putaruru district, where the accused was employed as a sharemilker on one of three farms owned by Mr. Harry Lucas Pearson. Mr. Henry, for the prisoner, who had admitted the charge, said that Malcolm explained his action by the fact tha* the returns from the farm had not come up to expectations and he had got into debt. He had sold the cows for £49 and h(id utilised the money to pay debts and purchase clothes. Counsel suggested that prisoner had yielded to a sudden temptation. His Honor gtressed the fact that the offence was a deliberate one. The cows had been driven off the farm to the sale, and while waiting to receive the money prisoner had an opportunity to reconsider his position. He had carried on knowing that he had committed a dishonest aet. Moreover, it appeared that prisoner's employer had placed implicit confidence in him. In this position of trust he had committed a deliberate theft.

His Honor then passed sentence of six months' imprisonment.