FOUR PRISONERS SENTENCED

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28050, 18 August 1956, Page 14

FOUR PRISONERS SENTENCED

CORRECTIVE TRAINING FOR ROBBERY

Allan Alexander Bush, aged 24. a concrete worker (Mr B. McClelland), and John Frederick Gillies, aged 22. a fisherman (Mr J. G. Leggat), who had pleaded guilty to robbing Ponaio Hubert Cruthers, a taxi-driver, and using personal violence to him. were each sentenced by Mr Justice Adams in the Supreme Court yesterday to corrective training. His Honour said it was a crime ol considerable violence. Such nr met. were very grave. Gillies had already been before the Courts for assault shopbreaking, counting-house breaking. fighting, asaulting the police, and using obscene language. Bush was admitted to probation for theft when he was 17. and at 19 was sent tv Borstal for two years for theft. The Court was satisfied that it was expedi ent for the retormation of each prisoner that he receive corrective training for a considerable period. Victor Julius Edwardson. aged 27, a driver (Mr C. M. Roper), who had been found guilty of receiving a stolen £5O note, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.

His Honour said it was fortunate for Edwardson that he was not yei liable for preventive detention. The present conviction and sentence dia lender him liable to preventive detention. and if he came before the Court again for a serious crime he was likely to receive that sentence. The jury had acquitted him on the charge of breaking and entering. Hu aided in the disposal of the principal part of the loot, and obviously was in close association with those who broke and entered the premises of T.E.A.L He had accumulated a substantial hs; of criminal convictions and obviously was a criminal of a dangerous type. On his previous appearance he v. as sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, but it had not cured l|jm of his vice. False Declaration Vincent Brian Perham, aged 22, a boot operator (Mr B. McClelland) who had been found guilty of making a false declaration and of obtaining £350 from the State Fire Office by a false pretence, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. His Honour said that Perham’s only previous conviction was in 1953 on a trivial charge of theft, and he disregarded it for present purposes Making a false declaration was akin to perjury. The false pretence wa: also of a serious character. He might have thought he had a legal or moral claim against the insurance office foi the almost complete destruction ol his car, but the vice of his conduct lay in the way he went about gcttir.s the money from the insurance office. Perham was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on each charge, the to be concurrent.