STOLEN MOTOR CARS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 23 June 1928, Page 8

STOLEN MOTOR CARS.

DEPUTATION TO' MINISTER OF JUSTICE. Following a deputation which waited on the Minister of Justice recently with regard to stolen, motor cars, the appended. report was read at last night’s meeting of the South Taranaki Automobile Association. The Minister pointed out that the law as it existed to-day gave motorists ah the protection required, if the daw was adniinLste.ed in full by magistrates. He went on to say that where it could be proved that a car was stolen the offenders could be Changed with theft, the difficulty being that a car caken for a short period came under the designation of a “joy ride” and if abandoned .was not a theft, but if the .car were taken away, kept, damaged or destroyed it would constitute a theft, the change for which was imprisonment up to three months without the option of a fine. *

The Minister pointed out that it was conceivable that if the punishment was increased by three months, the case would then he tried by a jury; and the question would then arise as t u wnethar juries would convict, the punishment being imprisonment. He recommended that each association should instruct a .solicitor to press for severer punishment under the Act, where a case of theft could he proved in the Magistrate’s Court. By this means the magistrate’s power would be brought more forcibly under notice, and given publicity. In view of the above circumstances it was felt that the union should not press for any amended legislation to increase the punishment at the present time. The machinery was in existence and the weak point was in its administration.