ENTERING AND THEFT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23482, 20 October 1939, Page 12

ENTERING AND THEFT

NUMEROUS OFFENCES MAN WITH 42 CHARGES TWO YEARS' DETENTION Sixteen prisoners who had pleaded guilty to various offences were brought before Mr. Justice Fair for sentence in the Supreme Court yesterday. In the great majority of cases the offences were those of breaking, entering and theft. The Crown Prosecutor, Mr. V. R. Meredith, represented the Crown. No fewer than 42 charges of housebreaking, shopbreaking; burglary and theft had been admitted by Terence Te Tau, porter, aged 21 (Mr. Aekins).* The offences occurred in Auckland and Hamilton between July 81 and September 13, and involved the theft of about £165. "Mr. Aekins said that when the prisoner had once started on these offences he found it so easy that he just continued. The money had been spent in drink and entertaining other people. His Honor 'said that apparently prisoner preferred a life of crime to attempting to earn an honest living. He would be sentenced to two years' reformative detention.

On behalf of William Noble, aged 33, who had admitted breaking into two dwellings at Aria, near Te Kniti, Mr. Noble said that the man's trouble was drink. Ho got nothing from the houses and obviously did not know what he was doing. His Honor said that Noble had been treated leniently by the Court in Hamilton last July. He would be sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.

Mr. Noble stated that lie was no relative of the prisoner. Probation and another chance were asked for by William Joseph Ahpene, a Maori sent down from Kawakawa for sentence for breaking into a shop. His Honor said that the probation officer's report was favourable, and showed that accused had repaid £8 of the value of the goods had had stolen. He would be released on probation for three years and required to repay a further £2 to the person from whom he stole the goods. There were two charges of breaking into shops and theft against Cyril Stanley Wheeler, aged 17 (Mr. Webb)'. Mr. Webb said the manager of the firm by which Wheeler was employed was prepared to take him back. Restitution would be made. His Honor released tire youth on probation for three years on condition that restitution was made within two months.

CONSIDERATION DEFERRED CASE AGAINST A YOUTH Eleven charges of breaking and entering, committed between August lo and 29 on the way from Auckland to Wellington, were admitted by Raymond Stanley Hill, aged IS (Mr. A. C. Stevens), who appeared for sentence before Mr. Justice Fair in the Supreme Court yesterday. Mr. Stevens said this was an outbreak of youthful irresponsibility rather than a fixed determination to crime. A friend was prepared to employ accused on a small fruit farm.

The Crown Prosecutor, Mr. V. R. Meredith, said there was £ll 2s Bd owing to various people, including pawnbrokers. f ... ■ . < His Honor said ho had great difficulty about releasing accused on probation, and he doubted if a small fruit farm would offer the most suitable form of employment. He would remand the case for consideration and would like to-know what restitution Hill could offer. .