COURT NEWS

Grey River Argus, 5 March 1941, Page 11

COURT NEWS

HARD LABOUR SENTENCES WELLINGTON, March 4. Commenting that the records of the prisoners showed they were going from bad to worse, and that precluded granting probation, Judge J'ohnston, in the Supreme Court, sentenced each of four men involved in the case in which zircons were passed off as diamonds, to twelve months’ hard labour. They were Edward Hughes, 26, salesman; William Birch, 26, salesman and showman; Charles Lewis Peoples, 25, clerk; and Cecil Gambell, 28, butcher. Hughes had pleaded guilty to three charges of false pretences, Birch to two charges, Peoples to two charges of false pretences and one of theft, Gambell to two charges of false pretences and one of theft. Peoples, Hughes and Gambell were also associated in a charge of obtaining £l5O by falsely representing that as jockey, brother and owner they were going to invest money on a norse race. FALSE PRETENCES NAPIER, March 3. Reformative detention for eighteen months’ was imposed on a musician, Desmond Ivan Perrin, after he was convicted in the Napier Magistrate’s Court on six charges of false pretences, and obtaining credit by fraud. TARRING AND FEATHERING NAPIER, March 3. An assault, which was described by the police as tarring and feathering, was 'the subject of a charge against four men in the Napier Magistrate’s Court. The accused were Ronald Watson, Percy Watson, Douglas Watson, and Walter Watson, and they were charged with assaulting John Picone on February 24. A remand for one week was granted after counsel for the accused had given an assurance there would be no further molestation of Picone.

CHRISTCHURCH OFFENCES CHRISTCHURCH, March 4. Frank Tritt, a carpet layer, aged 28, was convicted on three charges of stealing carpets, the property of Doris Baxter Lawrence. The values of the quantities of carpet concerned were £ll Is, £2O, and £34. Detective-Ser-geant A. A. Herron said Tritt had undertaken alterations on the carpet for complainant, and when asked to return it, he made excuses. Parts ot the carpet were subsequently seen for sale in auction rooms; nothing was previously known against Tritt. Mr R. A. Young said that Tritt was married, with one small child. He had been out of work and answered the advertisement of’ Complainant, who wanted some carpet relaid. Tritt altered the carpet to fit a house at New Brighton. Complainant then told him that she was taking another house, one in Weston road. Tritt altered the carpet again to fit this house, but was subsequently told that the deal for this house was of£, and complainant left for Wellington to arrange finance, said Mr Young. Accused had heard nothing for some weeks, and in the meantime his wife entered a maternity hospital. The child died, and Tritt also suffered a poisoned arm, so he was suddenly involved in heavy expenditure. As a result he had sold parts of the carpet. He would pay back the money, and his wife would work, too, to help him The Magistrate said that he would give Tritt a chance this time. He would be ordered to come up for sentence if called on within three years, and ordered to repay £65 at the rate of £5 a month. Samuel Robert Prisk, a tinsmith, aged 67, appeared for sentence on the charge that he was found unlawfully on the enclosed premises of Nazareth House. He had been charged last week and had asked to be sent to “the island.” “You’ve just come back from the island, I understand,” said the Magistrate, in sentencing Prisk to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour. Wallace Basil Bateman, a farm labourer. aged 21, of New Brighton, was remanded until Thursday on the charge of stealing a bicycle, worth £8 10s, the property of Angus John Pearce. Senior-S'ergeant J. Bickerdike said that Bateman took the bicycle from a stand and sold it at an auction room. When he called there for the balance of his payment he was caught by the police. The remand was made in order that the Probation Officer (Mr W. H. Darby) may submit a report.