SENTENCING OF PRISONERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22491, 27 August 1938, Page 4

SENTENCING OF PRISONERS

PENALTIES IMPOSED BY SUPREME COURT

BREAKING AND ENTERING CHARGES

Four prisoners were sentenced, two on joint charges, in the Supreme Court yesterday before Mr Justice Northcroft.

Frederick John Stevens, on a charge of housebreaking and theft, was sen- • tenced to 12 months' imprisonment, his Honour stating that the prisoner's record was a bad one, and that the probation officer's report was unfavourable. Stevens later appeared in the Magistrate's Court, before Mr E. C. Levvey, S.M., where he was convicted and discharged for unlawful conversion of a bicycle, and for theft. Harold Edwin Mauger and Raymond George Williams (Mr W. R. Lascelles) were admitted to probation for two years on three charges of breaking and entering a warehouse and committing theft, a charge of breaking and entering a shop and committing theft, and a charge of attempting to break and enter a shop, with intent to commit theft. Mr Lascelles said that Mauger was a young man, aged 20, with no criminal record. He had had a good record at scfiool, but had later developed a passion for "thrillers," and had begun to keep late hours. Williams, aged 20, had never attained Standard VI, and he had lacked the discipline of apprenticeship and employment during the difficult times a few years ago. He was of a nervous type. His character was considered to be of a high standard by businessmen with whom he had come in contact, and he was a dutiful son to his mother. Mr Lascelles attributed the offences in both cases to the effect of the "thrillers," which the prisoners had been reading. Mauger and Williams appeared later in the Magistrate's Court on a series of charges involving the conversion of cars. On these charges they were convicted and discharged. Joseph Benson (Mr H. W. Thompson) was sentenced to two years' detention at a Borstal institution on 10 charges of breaking and entering and committing theft, one of attempted breaking and entering, and one of being unlawfully in possession of an instrument for .breaking and entering. Mr Thompson said that Benson, who was 18 years of age, was impressionable, and had been greatly influenced by another man. His Honour said that the prisoner had appeared on six charges of theft in 1936. and in June of this year had been admitted to probation on further charges. A short time later he embarked on this series of crimes. To grant probation would be to bring the whole probation system into disrepute. Benson was later in the Magistrate s Court convicted on a charge of theft, and discharged.