CRIME OF THEFT.

Feilding Star, Volume 8, Issue 2560, 17 April 1930, Page 5

CRIME OF THEFT.

ENORMOUSLY OX INCREASE •The crime of theft is enormously on (lie increase. During the l i;isC ten y(>nr s it. has doubled,” said Mr. AVyvern Wilson. S.M., in the ILamiltoon I’oTic*. Court. “This is out of all proportion to the increase in population. A very regrettable feature is that, by far the highest percentage of convicted persons for this class of cfteiic e are young people. After the age of 30 the percentage falls considerably.

••It makes one wonder." the Magistrate continued, "whether one is doing right in granting probation in such cases. White an individual offender may not come up again such lenient treatment is not sufficient de terrent to others.”

Thcs,, observations were made in a case in which a young Aucklander, aged 19 years, Alexander AlcLuckie. pleaded guilty lo seven charges of theft from liis employers, the Farmers’ Atietineering Company, involving a sum of £57.

In a written statement the accused said 110 succumbed to tcmptaiin order to meet a bill for board. He had since repaid the money by borrowing it from bis mother. AleLucKie was remanded for sentence on Tuesday.