TAKAKA MAN’S DOUBLE LIFE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 208, 29 May 1940, Page 14

TAKAKA MAN’S DOUBLE LIFE

Career Of Breaking And Entering PRISONERS SENTENCED IN SUPREME COURT Robert Darling Welsh, 33, motordriver, who had pleaded guilty m Tak aka to four charges of theft, one of breaking and entering with intent to commit a crime, and 21 of breaking, entering and theft, was yesterday placed on probation for three years, when he appeared before Mr. Justice Smith in the Supreme Court, Wellington, for sentence. Welsh was represented by Mr. A. J. Mazengarb. The case was described by the judge as an extraordinary one. Apparently Welsh led a blameless life till lie was 29. Then in July, 1936, soon after his marriage, he began to lead a double life. In the peaceful town of Takaka he was an ordinary respectable citizen by day; but during the winter months he broke and entered shops and stored the goods in a shed. His Honour said he did not think much good would be done by sending him to prison. He sentenced him to three years’ probation, on condition that he resided only where approved by the probation officer, and made full restoration of the value of the goods not recovered, and paid costs of £l/1/-. Counsel said that of £4OO worth of goods stolen, £282 worth had been recovered. Failure to Stop. Alan Gilbert Perry, 21, factory band, who had pleaded guilty to failing to stop after an accident, was debarred from obtaining a driving licence for a year and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution, in default seven days' imprisonment. Mr. G. I. Joseph, for Perry, said that he had collided with a bus during a driving lesson, had become panicky and hurried on, but had afterward gone to the bus office and reported the accident, and then to the police. Had he not made a clean breast of it the police might have been put to considerable trouble. Breaking and Entering. Ernest Arthur Tremere Johnstone, 26, labourer and plasterer, who had pleaded guilty to breaking and entering, with intent to commit a crime, was sentenced to two years’ reformative detention. “There seems very little to be said in favour of you,” said the judge. Johnstone had a number of previous convictions, he said, and was qualified to be declared an habitual criminal. It was quite impossible to grant probation.