SUPREME COURT Gaol term for false complaint quashed

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33917, 9 August 1975, Page 13

SUPREME COURT Gaol term for false complaint quashed

A Sumner shopkeeper who falsely complained to the police that his shop had been burgled and his station-waggon, boat, and trailer unlawfully taken, had his sentence of one month’s imprisonment quashed on appeal to Mr Justice Roper in the Supreme Court yesterday.

The appellant, Johnj Craigavon Jennings, aged 36, appealed against conviction) and sentence on two charges of making false complaints to the police on May 7. He was convicted on the charges by Mr F. G. Paterson, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court and was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, put on probation for a year, and was fined a total of $2OO. His Honour yesterday quashed the sentence of imprisonment, increased the term of probation to two years, and increased the total fine to $3OO. He dis-

'missed the appeal against conviction. ' Mr D. C. Fitzgibbon appeared for the appellant, and Mr G. E. Langham for the Crown. His Honour said that the Magistrate had come to .the only possible conclusion as regards conviction. There was no sign of forced entry to the shop by the burlgars who were alleged to have taken 20,000 cigarettes and a drawer from the cash register. Then they were supposed to have hooked the trailer and boat up to Jennings’s station waggon and then run over a steep bank

on the Evans Pass Road on the way to Lyttelton. The supposed burglars had not been injured — there was no sign of blood in the vehicle. They were then supposed to have taken the cigarettes and cash from the station waggon, and closed the door on leaving. There was no sign of brake marks where the vehicle went over the cliff.

When seen by the police about 3 a.m., the appellant had admitted that at 1 a.m. he had known his shop had been burgled, and vehicles unlawfully taken, but had said that he had done nothing about it. During a search, 12,600 cigarettes were found under the stairs of his shop, and a sum of money in his wardrobe. He had asserted that he had forgotten about both. When the cigarettes were found, Jennings had remarked: "In for a penny, in for a pound.” The Magistrate had said that he had imposed the term of a month’s imprisonment to act as a deterrent, as the courts could not condone such type of behaviour, iour.

His Honour said that he agreed, but in the circumstances thought that the prison term would result in undue hardship which would outweigh the need of a deterrent sentence. Jennings had seven children living at home, his wife was not in good health, and the shop had to be looked after. Aptly named

Mrs Maria Sempreviva, whose surname means “still alive,” celebrated her 104th birthday at her home in the village of Tortoreto, near I’Aquila. Italy.