SUPREME COURT Sentence Of 4½ Years Gaol For Fraud And Burglary

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31676, 11 May 1968, Page 21

SUPREME COURT Sentence Of 4½ Years Gaol For Fraud And Burglary

As long u people eashed cheques for strangers, persons like the prisoner would try to make a dishonest livelihood, said Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court yesterday when sentencing Paul Robert Cowan, aged 26, unemployed, to gaol for four years and a half.

Cowan (Mr K. N. Hampton) had pleaded guilty in the Lower Court at Greymouth to 13 charges of forgery, 13 charges of uttering, three of obtaining credit by fraud, two of theft, and one of burglary. His Honour said that Cowan had a serious number of previous convictions for a variety of offences with the common denominator of dishonesty. The three charges of obtaining credit by fraud were mean acts in that Cowan had obtained board and services from hotels and left without

pairing. The burglary had been committed by Cowan in a hotel when he found the office key, entered the office and robbed the till. The charges of theft related to the stealing of cheque books. The charges of forgery and of uttering were the most serious. His Honour sentenced Cowan to three months imprisonment on each of the three charges of obtaining credit by fraud, the sentences to be cumulative; six months on the charge of burglary, to be cumulative to the previous terms; one month on each of the two charges of theft to be concurrent and served concurrently with the previous terms; three months on each of the 13 charges of forgery, to be cumulative, and added to the previous terms, and three months on each of the 13 charges of uttering, to be concurrent, and served concurrently with the previous terms.

Perjury Sentence Anton Stanatoff Nicoloff, aged 38, a tailor's eutter (Mr K. N. Hampton), was sentenced to two months imprisonment on a charge of perjury committed during the hearing in the Magistrate’s Court of an application for increased maintenance by the prisoner's estranged wife. His Honour said perjury was a crime which affected the whole basic structure of the law, and the law provided for a maximum penalty of seven years gaoL

However, Nieoloff had no previous convictions of any moment and had freely admitted the charge when confronted with it The probation officer had said Nieoloff would benefit from a term of probation, but s prison term must be enforced. His Honour ordered that Nieoloff be placed on 12 months probation after his prison term, and said he thought Nieoloff would benefit from psychiatric treatment