THE TOLL OF JUSTICE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 20, 19 October 1920, Page 3

THE TOLL OF JUSTICE

CONVICTED PRISONERS SENTENCED

TWO FORGERS DEALT WITH

Sentences were passed on convicted prisoners in .the .Supreme Court yesterday by His Honour Mr. Justice Salmond. Mr. J. l'renduvilie, of the Crown Law Oflice, ■ appeared for the Crown. Guilty of breaking, entering, and theft, at Taihapc, Uoydon Frank Barry (Mr. P. W. Jackson) and Horace Chnrl'.'S llnnniin were each sentenced to two yours' hard labour. Hi? Honour remarked that both men had previous convictions against them, and had committed a serious dim).', having stolen drapery to the value of MO. Barry's fatlu r appeared in court and pleaded for a chance lo be given his son, ascribing the young man's lapse to the influence of bad associates. Convicted of theft from the person. George Pileher (Dnnnevirke) pleaded for leniency, stating that lie would -repay the money taken. "The iliyft was n very mean one," remarked His Honour. "You picked MO from the pocket of n drunken man." Prisoner was 'sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour..

A young man, linndolph Arthur Page, received two years' reformative detention for breaking, entering, and theft at New Plymouth. It was stated that the prisoner was a new arrival in the Dominion, having only recently come from England. For a similar crime, a youth not yet 19 years old, Bol;i.<rt George Neill, who had committed the offence at Otaki, was sentenced to three years' reformative treatment. The seriousness of the offejice was augmented by the fact thatin July last the prisoner had been admitted to probation on a similar charge. rive charges of forging ami uttering were admitted by Frank Ethelbert Oake? (Mr. L'Estfange Edwards), who was placed in the dock witlu Normnn M'Leod Gunn, guilty of four similar offences at Napier. Oakes's counsel pleaded for leniency on the grounds that fix- prisoner had a splendid war record and that drink hnd 'been iolelv responsible for his downfall. He had enlisted in the Main Body. . In Gunn's case, His Honour referred to a previous conviction for theft. "Both prisoners." he .said, "were' clerks in the Defence Department, and both embarked on a similar campaign of fraud, having issued forged warrants for civilian clothes to soldiers who did not exist or who would never receive' the clothes. Gunn was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment with hard labour, and Oakes to six.months'.imprisonment with hard labour. ' Pilfering of cargo was responsible inr the appearance, of Frank Lnwtou (Mr. K. Kirkcnldie), who had pleaded guilty to the theft of benzine at' Vox ton. Ilia prisoner, said counsel, was for many years the harbouriniistH' at I-nxton. and had borne a hitherto unblemished reputation. Counsel plendeu tor probation, as the guilty man had a 1 wife and family. Before delivering sentence His Honour emphasised the gravity-of the crime of broaching cargo, saying that but for such an offence he would have been inclined to grant probation _!«- son!-r was sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour.