POLICE COURT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16375, 1 November 1916, Page 5

POLICE COURT NEWS.

♦ SIX MONTHS FOR THEFT. " I had some bad npws from the front, and I took to drink again." declared John Wall, a middle-aged man with several aliases, when charged in the Police Court yesterday before M.'. F. V. Frazer, S.M., with stealing a c<- j and umbrella valued at £3 Os 6d, the property of A. B. Joplin ; with stealing a coat, the property of some person unknown; with stealing two jackets, valued at £1, th« property of Martha Lindsay ; with procuring liquor Avhile prohibited; and with breaking the terms of his probationary license. He pleaded guilty to all the charges. ! Sub-Inspector Mcllveney stated that ac- ; cused appeared to be unable to resist drink. He was a habitual criminal, who was released on license on August 23. He i had been employed at boardinghouses, j but, owing to his propensity for liquor, had been dismissed. Some of the articles j were stolen from boardinghouses and icld Ito dealers, and other articles had been stolen from dealers and sold to other dealers. Accused said that drink was responsible j for the trouble. i The magistrate aid accused's list was so ! bad that he would have to return to j prison. He would be sentenced to six j months' hard labour on the charge of stealj ing the overcoat and umbrella. On the I other charges be would be convicted mid I discharged. This, he said, meant that accused, being a habitual criminal, would have to remain in gaol until such time as the Prison Board thought fit to release him. GIVEN A CHANCE. The young man Frederick William Tin die Rees, who' pleaded guilty a week j ago to stealing £1, the property of the | Ngamotu Beautifying and Improvement 1 Society, came up for sentence. I The police reported that the Salvation I Army had agreed to lend accused the money to make restitution, and to look after him. Accused was convicted end ordered to come up for sentence conditional upon his remaining in the Salvation Army Home until approved employment was found for him. DRUNKENNESS. A first offender was fined 5s and two others were convicted, discharged, and prohibited. A statutory first offender who had been in the hospital suffering from delirium tremens, with the result that £2 19? 6d expenses were incurred, was convicted, prohibited, and ordered to pay the expenses.