MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21744, 28 March 1936, Page 22

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

——. * —.— ' ' ■ ' FRIDAY (Before Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M.) THEFT FROM PENSIONS DEPARTMENT. Pleading guilty through Mr C. V. Lester, to the theft of £34 9s 4d from the Pensions Department of the New Zealand Government, Ernest Claude Kennan, an unemployed bootmaker, in receipt of sustenance and a family allowance, was convicted and was ordered to come up for sentence within three years if called upon. Chief-Detective W. H. Dunlop said that Kennan was a married naan with 10 children. He called at, the Pensions Department on December 24 to collect his family allowance, and as there was no one behind the counter at the moment, he reached over and took a bag which was lying there. After collecting the allowance he took the money from the bag'. He told his wife he had secretly saved some money, ana he spent it on articles for hls_ wife and family. The- money -was not dissipated, but was spent in relieving the distress in his own family. Unfortunately, the officer of the department was held responsible for replacing the money, and he was_ not in a position to pay. Kennan had had 16 convictions in Australia in 1911, and two in New Zealand in 1914. He had been foreman of a hoot factory for 12 years before he became unemployed, said Mr Lester. . The magistrate entered a conviction and ordered restitution to be made as directed by the probation officer. He said he would treat Kennan as a first offender. LEESTON Mr H. A. Young, S.M., presided oyer the monthly sitting of the Magistrates Court, held at Leeston yesterday., In an independent civil action, tne Springs-Ellesmere Electric Power Board v. R. J. Smith, claim £7 Os 2d, judgment was given for plaintiff by default with costs. . On a charge of having failed to give way to traffic on the right at Bishops corner intersection on February k. R Adair (Mr J. A. Scott) was fined £1 and ordered to pay costs. E. H. N. King, who did not appear, was charged with having .driven a motor vehicle without being the holder of a license. A fine of 5s was imposed. Norman Perez (Mr Lyons) pleaded guilty to a charge of having stolen £o from, a whare at Lakeside. \ Accused was admitted to probation for 18 months, on condition that he refunded the stolen money and re-* ported to the police at regular mter-