PRISONERS SENTENCED

Evening Star, Issue 20019, 9 November 1928, Page 9

PRISONERS SENTENCED

STERN SENTENCES ON EX-POUCE-MEH MUDDLED FINANCE [Peb Unit*a Pußsa Association.] AUCKLAND, November 9. ,In the Supreme Court, sentences of three years with hard labour, to bo followed by not less than two years’ reformative detention, were passed upon two ex-policemen—Thomas Francis Carroll, aged twenty-nine, and Sydney Francis Waters, aged thirtythree—by Mr Justice Smith. The prisoners were ton ml guilty of arson, arising from the. destruction of Carroll’s shop on the night of August 29 by an explosion and fire. Carroll, who was also found guilty of making a false declaration regarding the insurance on the burned budding, was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment on that count, the term to he concurrent with that on the major count. . His Honour said that to attain their miserable ends, the prisoners brought about a destructive lire. Fortunately no one suffered death from their act. It was hard to understand the jury’s recommendation to mercy—the only reason could he that the men had previously born good characters. An application was lodged for the retrial of Carroll on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence.

Augustus Henry Francis Wisnosky, aged forty-two, formerly clerk to the Mercer Town Hoard, who is also u railway signalman, was admitted to probation for four years on a charge of the theft of the Town Board’s money. There had been no falsification of the books, and there was 'o evidence of extravagance on prisoner’s part, and he had considerable sickness in his family. Prisoner had suffered also by the loss of his position with the Railway Department. “ it seems to me,” said His Honour, “ that you had not sufficient brains for the position of clerk, and as a result the finances of the board got into a state of muddle that you were unable to deal with.”