STOLEN BUTTER

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 261, 4 August 1928, Page 13

STOLEN BUTTER

A CARTER IMPRISONED Arthur Hobbs, a carter, aged 27, appeared for sentence in the Supreme Court yesterday on a charge of stealing butter valued at £2OOO, the property of Joseph .Nathan and Co. For the prisoner, Mr. W. E. Leicester said that although accused had pleaded guilty to the offence he had done so merely to save the country a waste of time and expense. Hobbs, so he told counsel, had only stolen butter worth £424, but some others employed by the firm had been responsible for stealing the rest. One of the worst features of the case was that the prisoner had absconded from his bail and disappeared for some months. He had gone to Taupo, where at the time of his arrest he was captaifi of the local football team. Mr. Justice Sim: The result of his absconding was that his unfortunate bondsman, the hotelkeeper; had to pay £lOO. Mr. Leicester: I understand that arrangements will be made to pay that money. Accused had been drinking on the morning he should have appeared at Court, otherwise he tells me he would have never tried to escape. His Honour said that although it was true that the accused was a first offender the charge was not one that the Court could look lightly on. If his story were true that there were others responsible for t]ie theft of the butter it .was his place to make a full confession to the police and have them punished. The prisoner was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour.