CARS CONVERTED BY YOUTHS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22464, 27 July 1938, Page 16

CARS CONVERTED BY YOUTHS

PROBATION GRANTED ON STRICT TERMS PLEA OF GUILTY TO SEVEN CHARGES (PISES 3 ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, July 26. Probation for three years, on strict terms, was granted by Mr Justice Fair in the Supreme Court to two young men who had pleaded guilty to seven charges of the unlawful conversion of motor-cars of a total value of £665, and to the theft of another car valued at £175. The prisoners were Keith Martin Warn, a labourer, aged 20, and Eric Arthur Davis, a timber machinist, seed 19 His Honour said that car conversion was difficult to detect, and it must be stopped, and he had great hesitation in granting probation in such a case, where the prisoners knew what they were doing and must accept responsibility for their conduct. However, he was prepared to grant them probation for three years, which really meant that sentence was suspended. Special conditions would be that they must pay half the damage to cai;s, £3 6s, within one month, and the costs of the prosecution, £5 19s 7d, and that during the period of probation they must not own, drive, or ride in a privately-owned motor-car without permission of the Probation Officer.