SENTENCE FOR THEFT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27403, 16 July 1954, Page 9

SENTENCE FOR THEFT

PRISONER’S APPEAL DISMISSED An appeal by Donald John Mac Neil, aged 36, against the sentence of three months’ imprisonment, imposed on him by Justices of the Peace in the Magistrate’s Court in Lyttelton on June 22 for tnett, was dismissed by Mr Justice McGregor in the Supreme Court yesterday. Mac Neil appeared on his own behalf. and the Crown Prosecutor (Mr A. W. Brown) appeared for the Crown. Constable C. M. Rhodes, of Lyttelton, said he arrested Mac Neil in Lyttelton at 7.10 p.m. on June 21, and MacNeil was very drunk. He was in possession of a brand new dressing gown and identification marks on it showed that it came from’Beath and Company. Witness asked Mac Neil about the dressing gown and he replied: “It’s not mine, mate. I found it.” Inquiries showed that Beath and Company had not sold the dressing gown and it must have been taken without authority. Constable Rhodes said that, when sober, Mac Neil was quite a good type but when he had liquor he committed thefts. He had several convictions for committing thefts when he was in an intoxicated or semi-intoxicated condition. He had just been released from Paparua Prison on the morning of his arrest. Witness said he was not sure, but he thought Mac Neil had eight convictions for similar offences in the last five years, and his sentences had ranged from one month to three months in prison. Mac Neil said that the constable was wrong in saying he had eight convictions for theft. He had two. His Honour asked Mr Brown if a list of the previous convictions was among the papers in Court. When he was told it was not, he said these appeals against sentence were always unsatisfactory. All that was before the Court was particulars of the offence and , the notice of appeal. Except for the helpfulness of the Crown Prosecutor there was nothing to assist the Court. Mr Brown said that the list of previous convictions should have been on the file. The police had been notified that, in these appeals, the Probation Officer’s report and the list of previous convictions, if any, should be before the Court. If the case could be stood

down he would obtain these documents. His Honour adjourned the hearing until the afternoon. List Produced. When the hearing was resumed, Mr Brown produced Mac Neil’s list of previous convictions. He said that MacNeil was first convicted in 1939 and between then and April, 1953, he had several convictions, but none for dishonesty. On April 13, 1953, he was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment for unlawfully converting a bicycle. In May, 1953, he was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment on four charges of theft and in March, 1954. he was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment for mischief and theft.

Mac Neil said he did not remember anything about the dressing gown. He had about £7 when he was discharged from prison that morning. AtAhe time of his arrest he had 32s 6d left. He was in a hotel bar up to 2 p.m. that dav and could remember nothing after that. His Honour told Mac Neil that the only thing to be done with him was to sentence him to imprisonment in the hope ,that he would realise that these drinking bouts, which set him off on escapades of dishonesty, did not pay. The Court did not consider the sentence was excessive and the appeal would be dismissed.