MOTOR-CAR THEFTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19844, 17 July 1926, Page 17

MOTOR-CAR THEFTS.

JOYRIDERS APPREHENDED SEVERE SENTENCE IMPOSED. (Pep United Press Association.) HAMILTON, July 16. The epidemic of motor car conversion in Hamilton which extended over a period of nearly five months, and took considerable police investigation to detect, resulted in two young men named Peter Gillies Hanson and Wilfred Edwin Dobson appearing in tho Hamilton Court to-day, when they were charged conjointly with convertin'” 15 cars to their own use, and with the theft of the benzine used in the car* which they took. Hanson alone was charged with converting three cars to his own use, and the theft of a tin of benzine from a car standing on the roadside at Morrinsvillo. The cars, which were mostly Dodges, had been used chiefly for journeys to Morrinsvilie where, apparently the defendants met two young ladies. The car? were, as a rule, abandoned in Hamilton. The accused pleaded guilty Tho Magistrate (Mr Wyvorn Wilson) said that undoubtedly Hanson appeared to have been the ringleader. The acts were not committed on the spur of tho moment, but wore deliberate, and extended over a period of several months. Hanson would be sentenced to one month’s imprisonment on one charge. Cn the others his Worship said he would deal with him as he proposed to deal with Dobson. Ho would place them both on probation for tivo years one condition being that they did not drive cars during that period, and another that they should each pay within two months £l3 12s 3cl, their share of the damage_ done to the cars, and the cost of the benzine stolen, and the prosecution. They would also be required to lodge a bond of £IOO each as a guarantee that the terms of probation would be carried out.