Beneficiary able to pay $1250 to court immediately

Press, 26 January 1988, Page 18

Beneficiary able to pay $1250 to court immediately

Fines, court costs, and a $3O bill for compensation, totalling $1250, were imposed on a 49-year-old sickness beneficiary who appeared before Judge Noble .in the District Court yesterday. George Patrick Shannon had admitted charges of intentionally damaging a fence on January 23, stealing a motor-cycle helmet on October 15, last year, a breach of bail conditions, and an act of obscene exposure in Cranmer Square on November 2, last year.

Judge Noble described Shannon as a community nuisance with an appalling list of previous convictions for petty offending.

Having been told by counsel, Mr S. O’Neill, that Shannon was in a position to pay a fine then, he said he would hit him in the pocket. Shannon was given 24 hours to pay the fine and costs. Failing to do so

would result in the defendant spending the next two months in prison, said the Judge. Sentencing of Shannon, who pleaded guilty to all charges in the morning, was delayed until the afternoon session to enable Mr O’Neill to determine whether his client, who had been granted legal aid, was in a position to pay a substantial fine.

After lunch Mr O’Neill told the Judge that his client had been paid $lB,OOO from his father’s estate last October. About $14,000 of this was on fixed deposit, with about $4500 in Shannon’s current account. As a sickness beneficiary he was also in receipt of $2BO a fortnight and, said Mr O’Neill, was in a healthy position to pay a court fine. Of the indecent exposure offence in Cranmer Square, Sergeant B. M. Roswell said Shannon had walked into the roadway

causing vehicles to take evasive action. He had undone the front of his overalls and had then exposed himself. There were women and children about at the time.

Mr O’Neill submitted that Shannon, who was not wearing underpants on the day, claimed the zip on his pants was broken and that he was trying to fix it. He now wore underpants, said counsel. SUPERVISION Supervision for nine months coupled with treatment for drug addiction was the sentence given to Neil Christopher Parkin.

Parkin, aged 35, unemployed (Mr S. C. Barker), was appearing for sentence for possessing opium and utensils, on December 10, last year.

Mr Barker submitted that the offences occurred at a time when his client was unemployed and de-

pressed. EXTRA TERM Three months were added to the prison term being served by Ricky Henry Corwell who appeared for sentence for escaping from Paparua Prison on December 11, last year. The Judge accepted that during the defendant’s brief exodus from prison there was no further offending. This, he said, put it at the lower end of the scale of escapes from prison. Corwell, aged 22 (Mr R. Glover) told the police he escaped from a work party in the prison garden to see his fiancee. Mr Glover said it was an act to draw attention to his client’s psychological problems. PRISON Prison was the only appropriate sentence for a man who in the past had been given every opportunity by the courts but

had “blown it,” said Judge Noble. Richard John Murdoch, aged 23, was sent to prison for three months, and disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for 12 months.

After unlawfully taking his sister’s $l2OO car, which was uninsured, he drove it, while disqualified, to the maintenance shed at the Rudolph Steiner School which he burgled, stealing $720 of tools.

He was involved in an accident with another vehicle while on his way to an associate’s address. As a result his sister’s car was written off. No order was made for the $l2OO reparation sought in respect of the car.

Murdoch told the police the incidents, which took place in October last year, occurred after an argument he had with his de facto wife.