DETENTION FOR THEFT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21316, 18 October 1932, Page 11

DETENTION FOR THEFT

POSTAL PACKETS STOLEN COOK AT FORESTRY CAMP PERIOD OF TWO YEARS For fhe theft, of fh/ contents of two postal packets, Albert Thomas Sim Evans (Mr. Noble) was yesterday sentenced in the Supreme Court by Mr. Justice Smith to reformative detention for a period not exceeding two years. Mr. Noble said that Evans was 22 and since he was 15 ho had been engaged in petty thefts. When the case came before the Court in llotorua, Evans was sentenced to three months' imprisonment for other petty thefts and counsel did not know why these charges had been sent on to the Supremo Court. Evans had not been in the postal service at all, but had been employed as a cook at a forestry camp on the Kaingaroa Plains. His llonor said that Evans had pleaded guilty to the theft of a watoh, valued at 7s 6d, from one postal packet and to the theft of a postal note for 6s from another. He now alleged that he was not guilty of one of the thefts, but personally His Honor did not believe the statement. He was addicted to theft, and since 1924, when he was 14, there had been a number of charges against him on six different occasions. In passing sentence, His Honor said he had no doubt that the magistrate cent the case on to the Supreme Court because he thought the time had come when Evans should get a more severe lesson.