ADMITTED TO PROBATION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 19 December 1935, Page 10

ADMITTED TO PROBATION

THEFT OF MONEY COMMENT BY HIS HONOUR (By Telegraph—Press Association) • CHRISTCHURCH. 17th December. “When your case is stripped of all tlie nonsense which surrounds it, it becomes a simple case of theft. Unless you are prepared to realise the enormity of your offence and how unmoral and unsocial it is, there will be ho prospect of happiness for you in the future.” These words were used by Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court to-day when admitting Hermann Henry Thiele, aged 25 years, single, to two years’ probation for the theft of money as a civil servant. His Honour said he had received a report on Thiele from Professor James Shelley, but as far as he was concerned the report was mostly nonsense because it tended to make Thiele feel sorry for himself rather than ashamed of himself. . 1 ' ; Counsel for the accused (Mr Archer) submitted that it was not a case of an ordinary balanced man but was the case pf a young man of a definitely unbalanced temperament. His musical and artistic senses were over-developed to the exclusion of more important things. It was more a case for sympathetic treatment and control. “Don’t you suggest that it as more a case for discipline?” asked Judge NorthCroft.' He said lie could see nothing indicating real remorse on the part of Thiehj. His Jlonour was strongly' impressed with' the view that some 1 severe treatment was necessary .to : awaken Thiele to a sense of liis wrong-doing. The defalcations amounted to £l9O. ‘‘The humiliation of your friends may provide a deterrent which would ordinarily have been provided by a prison term,” said tjje Jujlge in admitting Thiele to probation.