APPEALS HEARD

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 144, 20 June 1942, Page 4

APPEALS HEARD

AITKLAXI) SENTENCES (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The Court of Appeal reserved decision to-day when it heard an application for leave to appeal against a sentence of four years' imprisonment with hard labour imposed an George Lampton Gladding, a clerk, who pleaded guilty in Auckland to the theft of £2678 from his employers, the Ostend Road Board.

On behalf of Gladding it was urged that he had otherwise lived an exemplary life. He had held other positions of trust in which he had proved faithful and honest, among them the secretary to the Auckland Bowling Centre of 4000 members. He was aged 63 and it was submitted that four years' imprisonment at that age was a large portion of his remaining span of life. Counsel for Gladding submitted that it was a case for reformative treatment rather than hard labour, and a shorter term of detention. For the Crown it was stated that the thefts were large in amount and extended over a long period and that there had been falsification of books and minutes of meetings of the board.

The Court also reserved decision when Frank John Peers sought leave to appeal against a sentence imposed on him at Auckland at the last sitting. He had been found guilty of assisting a mental defective to escape and of having carnal knowledge with a mental defective, and was sentenced to two years' hard labour on each charge, the terms to be cumulative. The basis of the appeal was that the sentence was excessive.