CRIMINAL BUSINESS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 694, 20 December 1909, Page 11

CRIMINAL BUSINESS.

"TWO DISTINCT- ACTS OF DISHONESTY." V LeWis Witten, a- middU-agcd manV who .had p)ead«d. guilty, at Hastings, to two charge's of • .forgery' and. one'■ of theft,; Was brought up-fori sentence. .' Prisonerstated: that, at the'tjme of; tlie com-, mission- of the ! acts; :he :\va3 .ignorant of the fact. that what lie, wrote was a forgery. He had 'been, engaged as a collector, ivith' authority to sign receipts.He."had ekpeotM to bo able to refund tho money at some future time:..' .-' Mr. Fell, for' the Crown, said'-that.the.pri-soner. had come from the Old Country 19 years ago, and he had been convicted of theft in 1896, for which-he served a sentence of two months. Tho sura of XI 13s. bad been, found in prisoner's. possession, and counsel suggested tnat ; : this...should be restored ,to tho., man who had suffered by. the'prislaer's, dishonesty. , • His Honour Mr. Justice Chdpman said that there* wore two distinct acts, of . dishonesty! they could not be treated as a merely impulsive act.' His Honour had had to deal with a great > maiy ■ cases' of : this. kind, and' he' could see, lib-alternative to sendihg a man to prison: vrho aotod as' tho prisontr had dene. A sentence of six' months' imprisonment was inflioted,' and an order made tor the restitution of tho stolen'money; • • •',