YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 25 January 1939, Page 8

YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS

SHOULD CONTINUED LENIENCY BE EXTENDED? MATTER FOR SERIOUS CONSIDERATION i l/uited Press AsEociaiionl WELLINGTON, This Day. “Unfortunately there are so many young men coming before the Court these days that it is becoming a matter for serious consideration whether continued leniency should be extended as a result of pleas put forward by counsel on their behalf,” said Mr Luxford, S.M., after hearing submissions by Mr Hardie Boys regarding his client, Henry John Westbrooke, aged 21, a clerk, who admitted four charges of theft from a Wellington woollen company, the amounts totalling over £4O. “Here you are earning a wage which a man has to keep his family on,” said Mr Luxford to accused. “1 don’t l'eel inclined at the present moment to grant probation to you. I think it is a case for reformative treatment.” Accused was stood down till to-mor-row for sentence. Accused was stated to be receiving £4 5s as wages and paying 30s to his parents for board. Mr Hardie Boys said that the boy's father was entirely unable to account for the thefts except for the fact that he had bought a motor cycle for which he paid at the rate of £1 a week and for which he had paid £25 for repairs after an accident.