ELDERLY MAN'S THEFTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21493, 17 May 1933, Page 14

ELDERLY MAN'S THEFTS

.JUDGE'S COMMENT ON PLEA

When Frederick Albert Tapson, aged 65, appeared in the Supreme Court yesterday morning for sentence on four •charges of forgery and uttering and three charges of theft, his counsel, Mr. Sncdden, submitted that his client's olfonces were xmderstandablo in view of his. early education and his subsequent employment by a moneylender. Prisoner had been educated at Cambridge University, said counsel, and his career in South Africa, England and New Zealand bad reflected his early probity. Becoming out of employment he had been compelled to accept work with a moneylender. To such a man the lending of money for gain was despicable. Mr. Justice Smith said it was an ■unusual plea that an education such as prisoner had had should be submitted as an excuse, and not to show -.that it endowed a recipient with a ; greater understanding of responsibility. However, without entering into sociological problems, he was convinced prisoner had indulged in gambling. The [thefts in all amounted to £489. The probation officer's report said prisoner was ia man of sober habits, but a confirmed igambler. In His Honor's judgment rprisoner was clearly guilty of a persistent course of fraud.

A sentence of 12 months' reformative /detention was passed.