THEFT OF CAR PARTS

Press, Volume C, Issue 29518, 20 May 1961, Page 13

THEFT OF CAR PARTS

Imprisonment And Probation

He could only regard the prisoner’s offence as a carefully thought-out scheme with an answer prepared when he was caught, said Mr Justice Richmond in the Supreme Court yesterday, when sentencing Donald Henry John Kirdy, aged 23, a factory worker, to three months’ imprisonment for theft of car parts and accessories valued at £55. His Honour ordered that Kirdy be placed on probation for a year after the prison term. Kirdy had been found guilty by a jury. For Kirdy, Mr R. J. de Goldi submitted that the probation officer's report was favourable. .The prisoner had faced very real hardships both in his family life and in his own health. The probation officer commented on the connexion between his illness and a series of offences in 1956. He was a first offender, but in spite of his illness was sent to Borstal. The present offence seemed his only lapse since his release from Borstal three years ago. and arose from his passion for old cars and the type of company that went with old cars. Counsel asked that the prisoner be given a chance on probation. He could only infer that the prisoner’s offences in 1956 were serious from the fact that Borstal training was the sentence imposed, said his Honour. He was impressed that the prisoner was going to get married and by counsel's submissions, but he had to weigh the protection of the public with giving the prisoner a chance. In the ordinary way, he would impose a sentence from six months’ to a year’s gaol, said his Honour, but in the circumstances he would sentence the prisoner to three months’ gaol and then probation.