“INSIDIOUS & RAMPANT”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21945, 13 February 1946, Page 3

“INSIDIOUS & RAMPANT”

PILFERING FROM SHIPS ! RECEIVER SENT TO GAOL 1 (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 13 Pilfering from ship’s cargoes was insidious and rampant: it was calculated and premeditated and consequently all the more serious, said Mr. Justice Finlav in the Supreme Court yesterday j when he sentenced Walter Leslie Kil- j ner. aged 45 company manager, to six | months’ gaol with hard labour for receiving a quantity of dress material stolen from an overseas ship. He did not profess to judge who promoted the scheme, said His Honour, but there wa s a breach of trust on tiie part of members of .the crew and the prisoner collaborated. Pilfering was a serious offence, in- j volving great public loss, and unless • there were receivers there would be , no pilfering. All that argued a substantial sentence, but he was very conscious of the grievous loss the prisoner had brought upon himself, besides which anything the court might do was minor. One was bound to take into account the prisoner’s previous high character and the good work he had done in the public interest during the war. The sentence would have to be such as to give him a chance to rehabilitate himself.