CREDIT BY FRAUD

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28451, 4 December 1957, Page 16

CREDIT BY FRAUD

Young Woman Sent To Borstal (Neu; Zealand Press Association) PA LMERSTON NORTH, Dec. 3. It was abundantly clear that the accused was not yet fit to take her place in the community, said Mr D. G. Sinclair, SM., in the Palmerston North Magistrates Court this morning, when sentencing Barbara Hunt. aged. 19, married, with three children. | to Borstal training. The accused j was appearing for sentence on 21 charges of obtaining credit by ' fraud. I The Magistrate said that the ; accused's background and her i association with Raymond Charles I Belcher, aged 18. a cripple, were j most distressing. It was apparent • that there was a strong bond of affection between the two. and if the bond was sufficiently strong ! it would endure for the next two or three years while Mrs Hunt was receiving training. Borstal was the only appropriate sentence, the Magistrate said. Her children would be adequately cared for by the Child Welfare Division, and. when she was released, she should be able

; to resume, on a proper basis, her life with Belcher. Detective-Sergeant P. W. Hark-, ness had told the Court that: Hunt’s husband left her in Sep-' tember. 1955, but the maintenance payments of £7 a week bad now ceased. Hunt had been keeping company with Belcher for a considerable time, and accompanied by Hunt’s parents, the four had been travelling about the North Island while the men cleaned ’ chimneys in the towns they visited. Neither Belcher, Hunt, nor her parents had a home. They had been staying at motor camps, hotels, and boarding houses. Hunt appeared to have embarked on 'a systematic crime of obtaining ’credit by fraud since she was 15 I years of age. Probation for Man | When Belcher appeared for sentence on two charges of obtain- ' ing credit by fraud, the Magistrate said he would take into account Belcher’s background and his disability. Probation was the , best, method for assistance. If Belcher responded to the advice of the probationary service he should be in a position, when Mrs Hunt was released, to lay the foundation for a more secure life. The special terms of the threeyear probationary licence were that Belcher pay £2 towards the prosecution and make restitution of £5 17? 6d as directed by the] Probation Officer; that he abstain from alcoholic liquor; that he open a post office savings account sto be operated under the control' lof the Probation Officer; That he jlive and work where directed by, I the Probation Officer; and that he, not associate with Mrs Martin,' the mother of Mrs Hun’, during ’the Term nt probation.