PROBATION REFUSED

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 105, 28 January 1938, Page 5

PROBATION REFUSED

Theft Of Burial Fees And Money For Plots SEXTON SENT TO JAIL “The difficulty I feel in this ease is that here is a case of a long period of misappropriatiou of employers’ moneys, and, Of course; this kind of case unfortunately is or it was —quite common, and the court is faced with the position that one cannot deal with one case in one way and another in another,” said Mr. Justice Blair in the Supreme Court, Wellington, yesterday, when Oscar_ Meyar Lind Jacobsen, married, aged 45, formerly sexton at the Taita Cemetery, appeared for sentence for failing to account for burial fees and moneys received for plots. Jacobsen’s case, said his Honour, was typical of many others, and though the court would very much like to extend probation, were it granted, it would have to be for-a long period, and an order for restitution would only aggravate the position as prisoner could not comply with it. The court felt bound to impose a term of imprisonment, but. the ends of justice would be met by making the period very short. Mr. O. C. Mazengarb, for Jacobsen, said that during the long period of the misappropriations prisoner’s wages had been only £3/10/- a week. Originally they had been £4, but had been reduced as a result of the depression. Out .of that money, though he had a free house, prisoner had to provide for himself, his wife, and seven young children. His youngest child had been boru with defective feet, and required orthopoedic treatment at the hospital for nearly a year. The child had to go back for a further curative operation. In reply to his Honour, Mr. Mazengarb said that the ages of the children ranged from 14 years down to six years. Though the hospital expenses had been paid by the lodge, counsel added, the various incidental expenses had pressed very heavily on prisoner, who had succumbed to temptation. He had a peculiar emo'tionalism which quite unfitted him for work as a sexton. He was quite unfitted for burial duties. It had been noticed that after a burial in the Taita Cemetery, particularly of a younger person, prisoner went all to pieces. That, coupled with the fact that be had already taken some burial fees, made him start drinking, and that, of course, made it. easier for him to keep taking the money. Counsel asked for probation because of the unusual circumstances.

Remarking that the court was unable to stretch a point in the present case, his Honour sentenced Jacobsen to two months’ imprisonment.