SUPREME COURT SESSIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8653, 11 February 1914, Page 2

SUPREME COURT SESSIONS

CHRISTCHURCH CUSTOMS OASES, Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, February 10. Mild surprise was created in the Supreme Court this morning when Mr ;H. H. Ostler (Crown Prosecutor) intimated to Mr Justice ! Denniston that the prisoners connected with the Customs frauds intended to plead guilty. The accused were placed in the dock gs each charge was read out, and all pleaded guilty. The accused were:— John Hill and James Anderson Campbell (late Customs officers), Samuel John. McCormick and Christopher Robert Smith (lately in the employ of the New Zealand Express Company), George Clifford Francis (lately in the employ of Stevenson, Stewart and Co.), Ernest Walter .Wood (lately in the employ of J. T. Heywood and Go.), Francis ;Geoffrey Leigh (lately in the employ of T. H. Green and Co.), and Hugh Lawton Owen (a Customs agent). , The reading of the charges took '|ully half an hour. After the reading of the charges arid the taking of the pleas. His Honour said he did not propose to deal with the cases that morning. He would require as full particulars as possible to ascertain the nature of the different charges. Sentence was deferred.

John Pritchard pleaded guilty to assaulting Annie Brandt at Marshlands on January Ist, go as to cause her actual bodily harm. Ho was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. William Joseph Gaffey pleaded guilty to two charges of breaking and entering and theft. He had thirty convictions for drunkenness. He was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Frederick Jackson, found guilty on, the previous day of the theft of a motor bicycle, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. Press Association. DUNEDIN, February 10. At the Supreme Court to-day Roderick Munro and James Alfred Martin were convicted on a charge of stealing various articles from hotels. Sentence was deferred. Martin was also convicted on another charge of stealing an overcoat. Both accused were further charged with entering the dwelling of William John Goughian (Crown Hotel) by night, with intent to steal. The jury returned a verdict of guilty. John Thompson vvas charged with falsifying an Education Board certificate with intent to deceive the railway authorities when applying for work. Accused admitted the forgery, but denied the intent. The jury found a verdict for acquittal withoutleaving the box..

Munro and Martin were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on each charge and ordered to be afterwards detained for reformative treatment for a period not exceeding three years, the sentences to he concurrent.

John McKay, charged with assault, was found not guilty.