HARD LABOUR WANTED

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 226, 20 June 1936, Page 14

HARD LABOUR WANTED

Accused Labourer’s Request

A request that any sentence imposed should be hard labour, was made by Alfred John Buhck, alias James Philip Richards, labourer and grocer, aged 2'7, when he appeared before Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Wellington, yesterday. He elected to be dealt with summarily and pleaded guilty to the theft at Wellington on June 8 of an overcoat and cheque book of a total value of £6/5/-, the property of James Reid, to obtaining from John Cotton at Petoue on June 9 an overcoat valued at £4 and £l/10/- in money, and from Alvar Franklin Read, of Manthel Motors, Ltd., on June 12, £6/13/6, by means of valueless cheques. Detective-Sergeant L. B. Revell said that on June 8 Mr. Reid, a resident of Hastings, visited Wellington, and parked his car in Panama Street. When he returned, after having been away only a short time, he found that his overcoat containing a cheque book had been stolen. It was later recovered by the police from a second-hand shop, where it had been sold for 15/- by a man who signed himself James Philip Richards. Subsequently, Mr. Cotton, a tailor at Petone, was handed a valueless cheque by Buhck in payment for an overcoat. Accused i later went to Manthel Motors and arranged to buy a car, representing that his name was Reid and that he came from a well-known Hawke's Bay family. He made out a cheque for £lOO and received £6/13/6 change. Buhck, a single man, had a bad list, the detective-sergeant said, having been convicted for breaking, entering and theft and receiving. The magistrate convicted accused and sentenced him to six months’ hard labour on each charge, the second of which he made cumulative. Accused was ordered to make restitution of 15/- to the secondhand dealer.