"DELIBERATELY PLANNED”

Evening Star, Issue 23324, 21 July 1939, Page 6

"DELIBERATELY PLANNED”

BANKRUPT S SERIES OF OFFENCES SENTENCE BF FOUR MONTHS' IMPRISONMENT “ The offencesi were deliberately planned and carried out, and it would be improper for me to grant probation,” said Mr Justice Smith when sentencing Harry Vivian Smith to' four months’ ‘ imprisonment without hard labour for six breaches of the Bankruptcy Act in the Supreme Court today. ‘‘ The circumstances of this case art) fresh in my memory, and 1 can only say fhat the accused carried out A fraudulent scheme in order to place foods out of the reach of his creditors ere and. abroad,” said His Honour. Smith made an appeal for clemency before' sentence was passed, and said that he did not think that by his actions he was committing an offence. Mr 0. G. Stevens, who represented the accused, said that there was little that he could say that would be of assistance to His Honour or the > accused. Smith-was a married man with three children, and this was his first offence as far as dishonesty was concerned. This type of offence was rare, and the probation officer recommended that Smith be given a term of probation. He had received a lesson now that he would, never forget, and Mr Stevens pointed put that there was no possibility of the offences being repeated. Smith had been in custody since Tuesday. Counsel asked His Honour to give full weight to the jury’s recommendation to mercy. His Honour pointed out that such offences as Smith had committed affected the commercial honesty of the business community. They were deliberately planned and carried out. Smith had previous convictions of a minor nature that were mostly due to alcohol. He would be sentenced to four months’ imprisonment on three of the charges and to throe months’ imprisonment on the remaining three charges, the sentences to be concurrent.