SUPREME COURT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 5 August 1925, Page 5

SUPREME COURT.

IMPRISONMENT FOR ELDERLY MAN. (13Y TELEGRAPH. PRESS ASSOCIATION.) WELLINGTON, August 4. At the Supreme Court, an e.derly man named George William Thorpe, who was found guilty on 12 charges oi forgery and theft, and who pleacied guilty to four similar charges, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment on each charge, sentence to be concurrent. The judge took into account the jury’s recommendation of mercy on account of age and ill health.

ALLEGED BREACH OF BANKRUPTCY ACT. WELLINGTON, August 4. The Supreme Court is. occupied today m hearing a charge of an alleged oreacfi of Bankruptcy Act by Allied Eaton Mailman, a bankrupt grocer. The accused, it is alleged, contracted debts at a time when, being bankrupt, he had no reasonable expectation oi paying them. AUCKLAND SESSION. AUCKLAND, Aug. 4. In the Supreme Court, Theodore Desmond Boulton was found guilty of forging a cheque for £lO4 5s tjd and attempting to utter it and the theft of a suitcase and contents from a private residence. Harold Markwick, charged with obtaining £4O by false pretences concerning the sale of a trotting horse called Timbeli, was found guilty, with a recommendation to mercy. Evidence was given that the accused did not disclose the fact that he had given a bill of sale for £35 on the liorse.

SENTENCES AT DUNEDIN. DUNEDIN, Aug. 4. The criminal sittings of the Supreme Court opened to-day before Mr Justice Sim. Charles McDonald, an old man, who was declared an habitual criminal in 1919, was sentenced to six months’ gaol on each of nine charges of false pretences, the sentences to he cumulative. McDonald was again declared an habitual criminal. The judge remarked that he could not understand why the Prisons Board from time to time let out habituals, thus giving them opportunities for further crime. David Louis Armour Michie, on three charges of breaking and entering, was given three years’ probation. Colin Frederick McDonald, on two charges of breaking and entering, was sentenced to three years’ reformative detention. Nathaniel Walsh, aged 21, for carnal knowledge, was ordered 12 months’ detention.

James Alexander Fraser and Robert Murray Newlands pleaded guilty to demanding money with menaces. The former was fined £25 and the latter £lO.

AVilliam Martin Heckler and Edward Carnegie were charged with having committed manslaughter by killing AA 7 illiam James Cochrane. They were charged) under a new regulation with having negligently driven a motor car so as to. cause the death of Cochrane. Heckler was the driver of the car and Carnegie the owner. Heckler was learning to drive, and) drove th© car into the back of a dray on the Balclutha traffic bridge. The boy Cochrane was hanging on to the back of the dray, and received fatal injuries. The jury brought in a verdict of guilty in each case. PALMERSTON NORTH SESSION OPENED. PALMERSTON N., Aug. 4. The Supreme Court quarterly session ■oened this morning before the Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, who, in his •barge to the grand jury, congratulated the district on its comparative freedom from crime. Only three accused persons would come before the rv. and none of the cases were of a serious character. On the whole, there was little crime in the district. Tmc billq were returned against Beniamin Monk, for al'eged breaking and entering and theft: John Evjjns. for I'prred indecent assault; and Cvnl Noodby, for alleged breaches of the Bankruptcy Act.