BAD CLASS OF CRIME

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 111, 6 November 1935, Page 30

BAD CLASS OF CRIME

CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD

SUBSTANTIAL SENTENCES

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND. November 5.

"A crime of this kind is a blackguardly one and may inflict much greater suffering on the victim than the person committing it contemplates," said his Honour Mr. Justice Fair when sentencing Peggy Jackson, Mima Elizabeth Armstrong. Reginald Merton Semb, and Matthew Edward Daubney for conspiracy to defraud of £75 a man whose name was suppressed. The sentencing of Semb -was deferred owing to counsel having applied to be heard a motion of retrial on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of evidence. I Peggy Jackson had resisted the temptation- to join the blackmail conspiracy for some time, said his Honour. He convicted her and fined her £50, and also ordered her. to pay part of the costs of the prosecution and to come up for sentence if called upon within twelve months. He ordered the return of £15 to the person from whom it came. His Honour said that Mima Armstrong, in joining the conspiracy, had acted more on impulse. He fined her £20 and ordered her to pay part of the costs, the money received by her to be restored. Referring to Daubney his Honour said that always during his term as a Judge that class of crime would be subject to a substantial term of imprisonment. He recognised the youth of the prisoner and the fact that he was a good worker. He imposed a sentence of twelve months' hard labour and ordered restoration of £23 found in I Daubney's possession. I