GIVEN A CHANCE
THEFT BY EX-ARMY OFFICER
DOWNFALL DUE TO DRINK. (By Telegraph.) (Special to' "The Evenini Post.") AUCKLAND, This Day. A chance to pick himself up again was given a young ex-Army officer, Patrick Shields Hargreaves, this morning, when Mr. Justice Adams gave him what pratically amounted to two years' probation, under strict conditions, on a charge of stealing a typewriter from the Royal Hotel. The accused won a commission for bravery and served the Empire - well in India and Africa, as well as in the late war. When the jury found him guilty they recommended mercy on the ground of an excellent war record. In asking for probation, the accused's counsel suggested that probably the man's trouble was due to his lack of grip. "Or personal.habit?" suggested his; Honour. Counsel said that the action did not suggest an expert thief. His Honour: ".You need not stress the problem of expertness. I think he's given to drink." The Crown Prosecutor agreed with the report of the Probation Officer recommending probation. His Honour said that the typewriter was taken while the accused was under the influence of drink,. which inspired the temptation. It was disposed of while the accused was still in niore or less a bemused state. It was quite a lamentable thing that a man who had so excellent a record of service, a man who had played a most courageous and competent part both in the recent war and in other arenas, should be found doing this sort of thing for which he was convicted. In the interests of the accused himself it was very desirable that he should be placed under bonds which would strengthen his own resolution to establish a complete reformation and to regain the position he had so honourably won by his services. The Court proposed, therefore, not to pass sentence, but to order the accused to come up for sentence at any time within two yeaTS should he be called upon.
Counsel said that the accused had been offered employment under conditions which would be agreeable to the Probation Officer.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19261103.2.86
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 108, 3 November 1926, Page 8
Word Count
348GIVEN A CHANCE Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 108, 3 November 1926, Page 8
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