RAID UPON SOCIETY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18317, 6 February 1923, Page 6

RAID UPON SOCIETY.

; PLAN TO DEFRAUD'• BANKI , CONSPIRACY WHICH : FAILjED THREE ACCUSED SENT TO GAOT 1 ; , IBT TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCUTiqaj WELLINGTON, Utmit,. Three young men, Williami > Holland Makin. Leonard Walter Makin, and Percy Dowling Hawkins, who had pleaded[ guilty to; a 'number of charge* of forging- '$ the name of G. I. Beeson, to cheques . purporting to 'be issued -bjf':| l |S Discharged Soldiers' Settlement ment, were brought up for sentence' at the Supreme Court to-day before' Mr. tico Chapman. The total amount fo r which cheques were forged was £11,759 $j g _ ' His Honor said; he had carefully, cimi sidered ; what he ought to do m ,th«jr cases, and he had paid great attention to what the, prisoners' counsel had ;' their behalf. Although he fouhd'|!^B/!^ ■ self compelled to inflict very mark*,} punishment, he wished -to say that was indebted to counsel, as were also prisoners, for the enlightenment he had «. -,' ceived. He had, however, to loot fjjjjjififif; matter as if had actually been disclosed 3'Y ' on undisputed facte.; He " intended. fe draw a distinction between the twpjpjg|M and Hawkins, but intended to. ■■||§|fjp ,'. distinction between : W.-H. Makin : Wi4\.. W. Makin.' - Y ' ;! $$?& ; His reason for taking that i coutgfl■%»: that, while the younger Makin M<fa m one who planned this raid on society, -the J other brother, ' who was the elder, assisted in*the plan. ■'■ He would therefore treat thetwo Making as the originators i-Of||f]i»|M ' scheme, and "a very bold scheme it It was quite clear that if the' prisoners had met with ; even a partial ; J measure of M 1 success they would' have secured a tation that might have resulted in their '&1 names appearing in books of notorious criminals. ' : :' They would have mads a '■' :■ coup, so to speak, that would have placed j 1 them in the,/ ; ranks of highly-Buccesafal ; perpetrators of giant frauds. That Wai M their aim, and, with V moderate 'aitccesi,' M they would have got away with a coai : ; . siderable amount of money belonging to : others. But the bad aspect of the case, to hi I mind, was that this whole affair \ .'jya?;thi result of ," a carefully-conducted conspiracy which had been worked up with £eat . care, probably in imitation of criminals who'might be read of in books. The prp;|| soners had worked out a scheme to defraud %£ banks in several districts in the ; North Wi Island. • I 'V^mM , The prisoners: had been • spoken iio.ff as ;£; young men.of good character at.d of social M condition, somewhat above that of s|tlie« "common run" of criminals. ; Thai did "■'; not tend to mitigate the offence, but,'to i$ his mind, it had the- opposite effect. ~':<:' ■""' At the same time he wished to consider // ' tho circumstances which were in the pri->' soners' favour. 'They diTl not actually:,'! get away' : with -any money but ;he;cblipd|f| not see in the case of the two Making tl*t |■ that was/due to any sense of - repenteiK* but to a : breakdown of the scitme. ■/-j In these circumstances he could not treat the Makins otherwise than as ordia- ■> ary - criminals, and they were ; each sen-, ; tenced to two years' imprisonment , with t hard labour. • As to Hawkins, 'His': Honor remarked that he could „ see'' a \ difference V^ I in his case. v^-He;thought. Hawkh.s wu drawn into the/ scheme. ;. In saying that 1 he might be wrcng. but Hawkins certainly/ ' did not. originate ; it. H : ; Hawkins woDldbe ," detained :•:• for reformative u purposes for & period of 12 months. • "jW^