Jail sentence for receiving

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 4

Jail sentence for receiving

A sentence of 10 months imprisonment was imposed in the District Court yesterday on a freezing worker who had earlier admitted six charges of receiving stolen television and stereo equipment worth $7288. George Elias Van Der Veen, aged 33, had pleaded guilty before a scheduled trial on the charges. Judge Fraser, imposing the prison sentence on each charge, to be served concurrently, said the offences were relatively serious. The Court had to impose a penalty sufficient to deter the defendant and others from offending in this way. The Judge said he took into account that Van Der

Veen had already spent two months in custody, and the personal stress he was suffering from at the time that most of the offences were committed. Defence counsel, Mr D. I. Jones, submitted in mitigation of penalty that Van Der Veen had had no knowledge of any burglaries in which the property was taken. He only suspected, because of the prices asked, that they were stolen, and turned a blind eye to it. Mr Jones said that all but one of the offences occurred during a period when his client’s marriage was breaking up. He had turned to alcohol to counter his emotional problems.