PENALTY FOR CRIME

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1926, Page 3

PENALTY FOR CRIME

SENTENCES AT SUPREME COURT.

Several prisoners who had pleaded guilty in the lower Courts to crimes were brought before his Honour the Chief Justice in the Supreme Court to-day for sentence. John Patrick Herbert, who had admitted a charge of forgery and uttering at Nelson, was admitted to probation for a term of two years, on condition that he repaid the sum of £12, proceeds of the forged cheque, and costs of the prosecution, and abstained from liquor during the period of his probation. Mr. T. P. Cleary, who appeared for accused, said that the offence was committed when Herbert was suffering from the effects of drink. Arthur Lewis Schroder, a young man 20 years of age, who had pleaded guilty to breaking, entering, and theft at Nelson, was admitted to probation for a period of two years, on condition that he paid the costs of the prosecution and refunded the unrecovered balance of the moneys stolen—a few shillings. It was prisoner's first offence. George William Sass and Ellen Signall admitted a charge of theft at Patea. Mr. J. F. B. Stevenson appeared for prisoners, and asked that they be' admitted to probation. His Honour, in sentencing Sass, said he could only describe the theft as a particularly mean one. A considerable sum of money had been planted in a garden by fen elderly relative of the two prisoners, and this had been stolen. The reports of the probation officer were not favourable as to the accused Sass, who was sentenced to reformative detention for a period of two years. The accused Ellen Signall was admitted to probation for two yoars on condition that she repaid the balance Vf the money which had not yet been restored.