PRISONER RELEASED

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10966, 30 July 1921, Page 9

PRISONER RELEASED

A YOUNG MAN’S APPEAL SIB JOHN SALMOND’S SENTENCE QUASHED. COURT’S INTERESTING RULING. Legislation passed by the New Zealand Parliament last session, authorising the extension of the probation principle, was quoted by the Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday morning, in quashing a sentence of twelve months’ imprisonment with hard labour, imposed by H<is Honour Mr Justioe Salmond, at Auckland, a fortnight ago, on a. young man named Henry Richard Jeffrey, aged 22 years, who appealed, alleging harshness in the sentence. The court comprised Their Honours Mr Justice Sim (Act-ing-Chief Justice), Mr Justice Hosting Mr Justice Stringer, Mr Justice Reea, and Mx Justice Adams. DETAILS OF THE OFFENCE. The prisoner in this case, which was the first to come before the Court of Cramiaal Appeal, under the legislation passed last session, pleaded /guilty before -the Stipendiary Magistrate at Whangarei to the offence of stealing a Host Office Savings Bank book belonging to one John Dalton, and also f ja the offence of forging Dalton’s •tame to a notice of transfer of the account in the Savings Bank from Wellington to Whangarei. He was brought before the Supreme Court at Auckland on July 13th, 1921, and was sentenced to twelve months’ imprisonment with hard labour for each offence, the sentences to be concurrent. This court granted leave to the prisoner to appeal from these sentences, and the question to be determined was whether or not they ought to Be treated as excessive for the purposes of section 2 of the Crimes Amendment Act, 1920.

JUDGE REFUSES PROBATION. “The prisoner is a labourer, 22 years of age, who has borne hitherto a good character,’ ’ said Their Honours in their judgment. “He stole the Savings Bank book from the hut of his mate, John Dalton, at Portland, and signed an application in Dalton’s name to have the account transferred from Wellington to Whangarei. Application was made on behalf of the prisoner to have him released on probation, and this was supported by a recommendation from the Probation Officer. Mr Justice Salmond refused this application, and imposed the sentences al-j ready mentioned. In his report on thej 'oase, 'the learned judge says that he considered the offence to be deliberate,; and without extenuating circumstaneee, and that it should be treated as serious, in order to protect the Post Office Savings Bank and its depositors, and that this was especially so in -view of, the extraordinary frequency of the crime of forgery. PRECEDENT FOR PROBATION. * “The case Is certainly one in which probation would be granted according to the practice which has prevailed for •’many years. The system of probation which was established in the year 1886 wae made applicable to first-offenders only. In recent years, however, the judges extended it, on suitable occa. aions, to oases of prisoners who were not first-offenders, by ordering the prisoner to come up for sentence when called upon, and taking from him an undertaking to observe the provisions of the Firs? Offenders’ Probation Act, in the same way as if he had been released on probation. By the Offenders’ Probation Act, passed last year, the Legislature recognised the propriety of this extension by authorising the grant of probation to any offender, whose offence is punishable by imprisonment. The Act may be taken, therefore, as' dn approval by the Legislature of the way in which, speaking generally, probation has been granted by the courts. . TO COME UP FOR SENTENCE. “Having regard to this legislation and to the practice to which we have referred, the punishment imposed in the present oase conies, we think, within the terms of the statute, and ought to be modified. The following order, therefore, is made: —The sentences imposed" on the prisoner axe quashed, and, in substitution therefor, the prisoner is ordered to come up for sentence, if oalled upon to do so at any time within the next three years, with the result that the prisoner, by virtue of section 16 of the Offenders’ Probation. Act, 1920, will be subject to the provisions of that Act, as if he had been released on probation thereunder for a term of three years, and will be subject to the conditions specified in section 10 of that Act, with this condition also, which is now added, that the prisoner pay to the Grown the sum of five pounds on account of the ooets of the prosecution within one calendar month from the date of this order. The prisoner is to be discharged from custody forthwith.'’ Mr Allan Moody, of the Auckland Bar, appeared for the prisoner, and Mr W. C. MacGregor, IC C. (SolicitorGeneral) for the Crown.