"NOT COMMON"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 281, 27 November 1941, Page 8

"NOT COMMON"

gangster crimes

COMMENT BY JUDGE

ROBBER GETS FOUR YEARS

"Fortunately this gangster type of crime is not common -in New Zealand. but when it does show itself it requires substantial punishment. It must be stamped out before it begins

to grow." This was the opinion expressed bv his Honor, Mr. Justice fc'air. in the Supreme Court this morning, when Victor George Mosen, labourer, aged 21 came up for sentence on a charge to'which he had pleaded guilty, of robbery with violence. On October 28, Mosen robbed Colin Jackson, a message boy employed by the \Vaitemata Trading Company, of a bag containing £305 2/9 in money and 12 cheques, of a total value of £648 14/7, and u£ed personal violence to Jackson.

His Honor sentenced Mosen to a total of four years' imprisonmentIn entering a plea for leniency for Mosen. Mr. Meek said the prisoner came from a respectable family. He had left school at the age of 13 and had gone milking. Later, he spent a period of two years on a farm at Waiototara Valley and then went shepherding. When he was 18, he came to town and, together with others, he got into trouble, culminating in a prison sentence. The whole trouble with him was the fact that he mixed with bad company. "Tool Of Others" i "His was not the brain that formulated this mbbery—and this has been corroborated by a detective i concerned in the inquiry." said Mr. Meek. "This man was the tool of others. His stupid action in trying to cash the cheques stanips Mosen as an inexperienced criminal. It may | seem to be misguided loyalty that prevents him telling the names of those who were concerned with him; in the planning of the robbery, but] I submit that the real reason is fear." Mr. Meek went on to say that the violence used against the message bov was neither brutal nor excessive, and the lad had not been injured. He asked that if imprisonment was to be the punishment Mosen should not be sent to the Auckland gaol where he would mix with hardened types, but should be sent to some other place of detention. His Honor said it was not for him to decide where Mosen would go. Mr. N. I. Smith, for the Crown, said the robbery disclosed premeditation and careful planning. It was obvious that Mosen had watched the movements of the messenger for some days before he had undertaken the robbery. Of the prisoner's alleged share of £80 everything had been spent but 2/ apart from the cheques when he was arrested 11 days later. Money Dissipated "The money was dissipated on liquor, women and racehorses," he added, "and it must be remembered that the prisoner was on probation at the time."' His Honor said Mosen had something of a list. He had commenced his criminal career by being admitted to probation for a year and then, five weeks later on a charge of theft he had been ordered to be detained in a Borstal institution for two years, this sentence afterwards being commuted to 18 months' reformative detention. Six months after his release Mosen had committed further offences in connection with the conversion of a car and breaking and entering, and had been admitted to probation to give him the opportunitv to show that he would prove himself a good member of society.

*'I/cniency Wasted" "Tho fact that you have committed this crime shows that the leniency was wasted on you,'' said his Honor, in stating that"it seemed that prisoner had deliberately planned the crime by studying the ■liabits of the messenger. There was nothing to support the contention that Mosen was the tool of others and it seemed possible that he was the originator of the scheme.

On the charge of robberv with violence, his Honor sentenced Mosen to a term of three years' imprisonment with hard labour and. on the charges on which prisoner had previously been admitted to probation he was sentenced to one year's formative detention. The sentences will be cumulative.