POSED AS CONSTABLE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 118, 20 April 1931, Page 8

POSED AS CONSTABLE.

TWO MONTHS’ IMPRISONMENT. Charged with having assumed without authority the designation of a constable, Norman Julius Johansen appeared in the Magistrate’s Court to-day before Mr J. L. Stout, S.M. He also came" up for sentence on a charge of being idle and disorderly, having been convicted recently and ordered.to appear if called upon". Mr Sinclair appeared for accused and entered a plea of guilty. Detective Russell said accused had been convicted on a charge of vagrancy recently and ordered to come up lor sentence when called upon. He had been offered relief work, but had failed to accept it. Apparently he did not like hard work. On the first occasion when accused had represented himself a constable he had approached a man and, pulling out his own probation papers, had alleged that the description’ of the man he had accosted corresponded with that of a person suspected of breaking and entering a house. Subsequently accused was warned by the police not to repeat these impersonations. Recently, added Detective Russell, the police were called at midnight to a family disturbance, and when they arrived were informed that everything was all right, as a detective had been down. Later inquiries disclosed that the “detective” was Johansen. Accused lfad also visited a lounge in the city and said he was a bakehouse inspector, but was informed that there was no bakehouse at this place. Mr Sinclair stated that accused had made the representations alleged, but had done no harm to anyone, nor had he done it for personal gain. He seemetl to have no sense of responsibility, and it was difficult to know what good a term of imprisonment would do him. The first time accused had represented that he was a constable he had done so more or less as a foolish prank. He had explained that he was with a young lady when two half-drunken men lurched against him, and, assuming the functions of a constable, he had told them to move on.

The Magistrate sentenced accused to two months’ imprisonment with hard labour for representing that he was a constable and fined him £l, in default a month’s imprisonment with hard labour, on the charge on which he was.previously ordered to come up for sentence. His Worship commented that accused had already had twelve months in the Borstal Institute.