THEFTS OF CARS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24102, 22 October 1941, Page 6

THEFTS OF CARS

PENALTIES TOO LENIENT "CONVERSION" A MISNOMER (0.C.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday "We have had the punishments stepped up, fines made heavier, and imprisonment imposed, but it is not enough yet," said Mr. E. A. Batt, chairman of the council of the Automobile Association (Wellington), when speaking at the annual meeting on the prevalence of unlawful conversion of cars.

"I believe the 1941 figures, by the way we are going, will be worse than for the year ended December, 1940, in which 1287 cars, or three and a-half a day, were stolen," added Mr. Batt. Placing the value of each of these conservatively at £2OO, he continued, that represented a total of £250,000 in cars stolen in New Zealand, or £SOOO a week.

"1 say these cars were stolen, and not converted," said Mr. Batt. "Are those not startling figures, and don't you think that there should be more drastic punishment for the car thief? I never heard of a piano being unlawfully removed from a house and the offence being called conversion, but for year after year the theft of cars is called conversion. The punishment, we say, has never fitted the crime, although organised motorists have protested most vigorously." Mr. Batt said that excellent work had been done by the police in apprehending and prosecuting two-thirds of the offenders.