MAXIMUM PENALTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21702, 18 January 1934, Page 12

MAXIMUM PENALTY

SYPHONI.NG CAR TANKS THREE MONTHS* IMPRISONMENT [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] NEW PLYMOUTH, Wednesday Thrco months' imprisonment, the maximum punishment possible for an offence involving the amount in the charge, was imposed on Kenneth Samuel Haskell, a single man, on a charge of stealing two gallons of petrol, valued at 3s lOd.

Stealing petrol in the manner in which Haskell had been detected was a serious matter, said Sergeant Clist. A man who slept at a service station at Fitzroy, a suburb of New Plymouth, heard a car stop, but, there being no summons, he stayed in bed. Later he heard tho rattle of cans and became suspicious. He found Haskell crouched at the back of a car. The attendant found a tin half-full of petrol. Tho sergeant produced a length of rubber tubing which ho suggested had been kept by Haskell for no other purpose than that of syphoning petrol out of other people's cars. It was found lying on the floor of Haskell's truck. Tho attendant afterward found the cap on the tank of his own car had been removed and two or three gallons taken. Sergeant Clist said that for a considerable time the police had received coinplamts from people at Fitzroy regarding the taking of petrol from cars. '

The magistrate, Mr W. H. Woodward, said lie regarded the matter as very serious. It was clear that Haskell had been in no urgent need of petrol, and, even if he had been, that would be no justification for the theft. There were no redeeming features in tho incident.