PRISONERS SENTENCED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7866, 31 July 1911, Page 2

PRISONERS SENTENCED

MOSTLY FOR THEFT 'EE CENT EOBBEEIES FEOM CITY WAREHOUSES. Mr Justice Chapman sentenced a number of prisoners in the Supreme Court on Saturday morning for crimes of which they stood convicted on their own confession. Bertie Smith, Ernest Charles Gregory, and Alfred Smith were in the dock because of their connection with tho recently discovered warehouse thefts, tho circumstances of which disclosed methods of systematic robbery. Alfred Smith was not indicted for theft, but only for having received certain of the stolen goods. Mr A. L. Hordman appeared for the Smiths, and Mr A. Gray for Gregory.

From tho statements of counsel 't appeared Giat the Smiths had until the Inst few months borne exemplary characters. On their behalf Mi- Herdman asked for his Honor’s clemency to tho extent of granting them probation. Gregorys case was rather different. Mr Gray informed the court that he had been only two years in tho country, having come from London. Further, he owed his unfortunate lapse to having yielded to temptation by one of the other accused. His Honor did not deal with Gregory’s case, saying that he would sentence him on Monday. Ho intimated that .ho was not prepared to grant him probation. His Honor sternly rebuked the two Smiths, who had cunningly devised and carried out a scheme of systematic thieving. Bertie Smith was sentenceod to imprisonment for twelve months and Alfred Smith to imprisonment for nine months. DISHONEST SOLICITOR GOES TO GAOL FOE TWELVE MONTHS. Arthur Harold Bunn is a young man who ought to have most of his opportunities ahead of him, but he blasted them all by taking,, little by little, some .£228 10s of the moneys of his employers, Messrs Bell, Gully and Cooper, in Palmerston. Bunn is himself a solicitor, but for his work, apparently that of a clerk simply, he was paid until recently only iIOO a year. This small salary he increased by helping himself from time to time to .£228 in less than two years. Mr T. Young, who appeared for tho prisoner, said that the money stolen had been guaranteed by Bunn’s relatives. He pleaded that tho young man had previously borne a good character, and suggested that as he had to help to support his mother ho found his salary too small. Then he was tonjpted on occasion to use moneys passing through his hands, and tho lack of proper check over him encouraged. him to go on with it. Bnhn would lose his certificate, a very severe punishment, and counsel urged that tho case might bo met by admitting him to probation. . “The suggestion to grant probation,” replied his Honor, "is quite out of the question. It would be altogether wrong to treat this as a case for probation where a series of systematic offences, extending over a long period, has been committed. lam very sorry indeed to havo to sentence a young man to a term of imprisonment, especially considering what it involves, but I cannot abstain from doing so. It is a very painful thing to mo, and to the members of the Bar who are listening to me now. I havo Had the misfortune to have had other cases of the kind before me, and I havo had to sentence men who took money under pressure of need, which does not seem to he the cane here, to terms of imprisonment. The fact that you are a solicitor is a fact that makes it more necessary to inflict a sentence of imprisonment, because you belong to a profession that is habitually trusted with the money of other people, and trusted in a great variety of ways. You have betrayed the trnst of your employers, who relied on your honesty right up to the last- Somebody always has to bo trusted in a solicitor’s office, and no one has a right to say that money had been taken because the check was not sufficient. I have great difficulty in fixing the measure of punishment. For the reason that you are a young man. 1 will make the sentenge a short one. You will be imprisoned for twelve months with hard labour.” A BAD LOT YOUNG MAN’S NUMEROUS OFFENCES. Harold Spencer is twenty-seven years of age and lie has been nine times convicted for once for failure to maintain his child, and once for vagrancy. Also, ho drinks too much. His last offence was to break and enter a house in Lome street and take away what seemed to him likely to yield profit. His Honor sentenced prisoner to six months’ imprisonment, to be followed by four years of reformative treatment. FALSE PRETENCES EiNGEE TO THE COMMUNITY. George McDonald, who had obtained money by false pretences, didn’t want to go to Wellington gaol. He objected that’ the warders were unpleasantly attentive to him, refusing to accord to him proper civility and to give him some of the things he felt he really needed. His Honor told the prisoner that he might not be kept long in Wellington gaol, but his removal from there would not he in deference to his desire to cheese his own quarters. The short sentences he had served had done no good, he had persisted in pursuing a course of crime, and he was 'a danger to the community. He was sent down for one year, to he followed by five years’ detention. PROBATION GRANTED Stanley Mcßnrney, thirty years of age, had forged an endorsement on a bill- The police report stated that he had a wife and three children—raise drinking habits. His Honor accepted prisoner’s statement that lie had prepared the bill without intending to forge the endorsement, and admitted him to probation for three years, conditions being that he must abstain from drink and that ho should pay back the money received by him at the rate of 15s per week.