STONES WHICH WERE NOT DIAMONDS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 136, 5 March 1941, Page 7

STONES WHICH WERE NOT DIAMONDS

Sellers Of Zircons Sent To Prison

Four young men, who had. pleaded guilty in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, on February 26, to charges of false pretences in selling zircons as diamonds in Wellington last month, were sentenced by Mr. Justice Johnston in the Supreme Court, Wellington, yesterday to 12 months’ imprisonment on each charge, the sentences to be served concurrently. They were Edward Hughes, salesman, aged 26, and William Birch, salesman and showman, aged 26, who had pleaded guilty to obtaining £55 from Zenia Grant, and £5B from A. D. Duncan by falsely representing that zircons were diamonds; Charles Edward Peoples, clerk, aged 25, and Cecil Gambell, butcher, aged 28, who had pleaded guilty to obtaining from J. A. Eustace on February 8 £l2 in money and two cheques totalling £2B by falsely representing that four gold rings mounted with zircons were mounted with diamonds. Peoples and Gambell had also pleaded guilty to the theft on December 31 of £55, the property of F. R, Quinton, Auckland. People, Hughes and Gambell had also pleaded guilty to obtaining £l5O from H. J. Smytt), Te Awamutu, in Wellington on January 15 by falsely representing that they were Larry Wiggins (the well-known jockey), Arthur wiggins (his brother), and George Thomas (master butcher, Invercargill), and that they were going to invest money on the horse Lambourn, which was to be ridden by Larry Wiggins at the Wellington races. Mr. C. H. Arndt, who appeared for the four accused, said that all the crimes constituted in effect a series of offences which all took place about the same time. Counsel said that all the accused were young men, and he made a plea for probation to be extended to Hughes, who had had only one previous conviction against him. The diamond offences, Mr. Arndt said, might have come out of an O. Henry novel. Accused had treated the matter iu a romantic light, and had spent the money obtained in drinking and betting. Some of the people concerned with the zircon transactions must have known that they were playing with fire. He had been told that synthetic jewels sold much above their value, ami that zircons were valuable stones, worth about £2.

His Honour, iu passing sentence, said he had read the papers, and examined the records of the prisoners, and, in bis view, it was idle to suggest that any one of them was entitled io probation. They had been only going from bad to worse. He found it hard to distinguish one from the other. “The records of each one of you precludes me from granting probation." said his Honour.

Mr. F. T. Clere represented the Crown.