APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28618, 21 June 1958, Page 11

APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE

“Corrective Training Not Appropriate” Quashing a sentence of corrective training imposed on Grahame Edward Larwood, aged 21, in the Magistrate’s Court, the Chief Justice (Sir Harold Barrowclough) substituted a sentence of nine months’ imprisonment in the Supreme Court yesterday. Larwood, who did not appear in Court, appealed against the sentence passed on June 5 on a charge of theft. Mr C. M. Roper, for the Crown said that Larwood was on probation at the time of the offences and was not long out of prison. In reply to his Honour, counsel said that the likely alternative to corrective training would be imprisonment for at least a year. His Honour said that Larwood had embarked rather suddenly on a series of offences and in November, 1957, he was admitted to probation for two years for the theft of a cheque. In March. 1958, he had unlawfully taken a motor-car and committed two offences of false pretences. The appellant had just completed a sentence of two months’ imprisonment when he stole £lO and a tobacco pouch worth about 15s 6d. The sentence of corrective training was imposed for these offences.

“After full consideration it is my opinion that in the circumstances this is not the right punishment to impose at this stage,” his Honour said. A more appropritate sentence would be imprisonment for a finite term. “If he should offend again corrective training or something more severe will be the only punishment that he can expect,” his Honour added.