GAOL SENTENCE IMPOSED

Press, Volume C, Issue 29558, 6 July 1961, Page 9

GAOL SENTENCE IMPOSED

Four Charges Of Fraud

He would give the prisoner a final chance of overcoming his addiction to drink: he would sentence him to 16 months’ imprisonment instead of preventive detention (three to 14 years’ gaol), said Mr Justice Macarthur in the Supreme Court yesterday, when sentencing David Robinson Scntt. aged 43. Scott appeared for sentence on fou r charges of obtaining credit bv fraud His Honour sentenced him to four months’ imprisonment on each charg.e the sentences to be cumulative. He warned Scott that his appearance again in court would almost inevitably lead to a sentence of preventive detention. For Scott. Mr B. G. Dingwall said the prisoner had been in New Zea’and for five years and had 18 previous convictions for dishonesty in that time. He was liable for preventive detention. It was clear from the reports that Scott was an alcoholic. and plain that if he could keep away from liquor he would have a chance. Scott was not a public menace: he was only a public nuisance. It was : only in the last six years of his life that he had begun committing crimes. “I would submit that preventive de’ention would not do the prisoner a great deal of good. It would keep him away from the company of the sk'd row in New Zealand. b -- t it would not cure him.” Mr D ngwall said. Counsel said that a finite term of imprisonment, followed by probation with special conditions relating to restitution and alcohol would assist the prisbnei more. Mr C. M. Roper, for the Crown, said that the prisoner ' had shown an utter disregard for other people’s propertv He had obtained, on the present charges. £lB4 18» worth of goods but this had * resulted in a net »ain to him of only £l5. The goods which could not be recovered. had been virtually saertflced fev the prisoner. The prisoner had been dealt with leniently by the Courts twice this year, but had taken no advantage of that leniency, he said.