THEFT AND FRAUD CHARGES

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27148, 18 September 1953, Page 11

THEFT AND FRAUD CHARGES

MAN SENTENCED TO YEAR’S GAOL

Thomas John Henry Foote, a* labourer, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with hard labour on five charges of theft and three of fraud by Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M., in the Magistrate s Court yesterday. He pleaded guilty to all charges. The charges were that on April 17 he stole eight drums valued at £l2, the property of Caltex Oil (N.Z.), Ltd.; that on April 17 he stole three drums valued at £4 10s, the property of the New Zealand Railways Department; that on July 1 he stole a carpenter’s plane, valued at £2 10s, the property of the Christchurch Boys’ High School: that on July 2 with intent to defraud he obtained from Motorways (N.Z.), Ltd., scrap metal to*the value of £lB 12s 6d, by falsely representing that he was the representative of Peter Jackson, scrap metal dealers, of Petone; that on May 1 with intent to defraud he obtained scrap metal, valued at £l7 10s from Mount Magdala Laundry by falsely representing that he was J. Foley, proprietor of the Jackson Cast Iron Company, of Christchurch; that on April 7, with intent to defraud, he obtained from William James Cowles scrap metal valued at £8 10s 3d by falsely representing that his name was Jackson and that he was owner of a foundry in Madras street: that on June 16, he stole a carpenter’s plane valued at £4, the property of Eric Bayliss; and that on April 17 he stole six drums valued at £6 the property of the Canterbury Seed Company.

Detective-Sergeant G. W. Alty said that the accused, _ aged 45, was a labourer when he worked, and that was seldom. He had made a specialty of visiting places where old machinery lay, saying he was the representative of a scrap buying firm, loading the metal on to a truck and departing. Another specialty of his was to borrow 44-gallon oil drums, saying he wished to use .them to support a glass house he was building, take them away and not return.

The articles he obtained by these means he sold, said Detective-Sergeant Alty. He admitted that he made £55 2s 6d from the sale of the scrap tad spent it all on drink. He had a great number of convictions, many of them of this type. “I had been employed by the New Zealand Railways in Dunedin for the last 18 months,” said Foote. “I came here on holiday, got on the drink and that started it all.”

Foote admitted to the Magistrate that he had 91 previous convictions, mostly for theft.

On each of four charges Foote was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour, the sentences to be cumulative. On the remaining charges he was also sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour, the sentences to be served concurrently.