PRISONERS SENTENCED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17295, 20 October 1919, Page 9

PRISONERS SENTENCED.

BETTING TELEGRAM ALTERED.

PROBATION FOR TWO YEARS.

COMMENTS BY THE JUDGE.

Three prisoners were brought up for sentence at the Supreme Court on Saturday, before Mr. Justice Stringer.

A young married man, Boyd Stewart Sutherland, who pleaded guilty in the lower court laj t week to a charge of false pretences, in tnat he altered the name of a horse in a betting telegram sent to a Christchurch bookmaker after having seen a telegram showing the result of the race on which the bet was made, was represented by Mr. A. E. Skelton, who made a strong appeal for leniency. Counsel stated that the prisoner had 14 years' service in the Telegraph Department to ids credit, and ranked a tirst-class operator. He had been supjected to numerous temptations to tamper with telegrams to bookmakers, and his present lapse was the result of a. sudden impulse. Counsel added that he appreciated the fact that th offence was one which tended to shake confidence in an important public service, but suggested that the circumstances justified his application that the provisions of the First Offenders Probation Act should be extended to the prisoner. Evidence as to the good character of the prisoner was given by Mr. P. McKlwain, J.P.

The Ho.-i. J. A. Tole, K.C., Crown prosecutor, said that evidently Sutherland was addicted to gambling, but that the gravamen of the charge -was not gambling, but the fraudulent use of an important branch' of the public service. His Honor said it was most deplorable that a young man of good abilities and) good prospects in the public service should have brought himself to ruin by his insane passion for gambling on horse-racing, the indulgence of which was facilitated by a pernicious laxity which permitted the telegraph office to be used as a medium for gambling. Considering the circumstances of the case, he thought the court was entitled to conclude that the prisoner yielded to a sudden temptation. Any breach of trust in the postal service was rightly regarded as a serious offence, for which probation was not usually granted. In view of the favourable report of the probation officer, however, he thought that without any undue straining of the law he could admit the prisoner to probation. The prisoner would be placed on probation for two years, his employment and amusements to be subject to the probation officer's approval. He was also to refrain from gambling, and was not to enter upon a racecourse. • Counsel, on be- ; half of the prisoner, undertook to pay the | costs of the prosecution, amounting to