OLD STATUTE REVIVED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22099, 1 November 1933, Page 11

OLD STATUTE REVIVED

PRISONERS PAY FOR KEEP. In addition to having to serve sentences of three months each, passed upon them at Blackpool, Lancashire, three pickpockets—one with an international reputation —will have to maintain themselves in prison out of their own pockets. They are William Thornton, aged 40, tailor, of Coventry; John Smith, aged 44, commission agent, of London; and Edward Collins, aged 48, french polisher, of Manchester, who pleaded guilty to loitering for the purpose of picking pockets. After their records had been revealed to the court, the chief constable, Mr H. B. Derham, asked the Bench of justices to confiscate £45, which the men had between them, so that the cost of maintaining them in prison would be borne by themselves. “ I make this unusual application,” added Mr Derham, “ because they all said they were unemployed, but yet they had the money. Smith had £2O 10s, Collins £l7 10s 6Jd, and Thornton £7 Is Id.”

The prisoners asked that the money should be sent to their wives. One stated that he had eight children, another seven, and the third three. When the Bench granted the application, defending counsel • asked on what authority it was granted. The chief constable: It is an old Act. Counsel: Well, I know nothing about it.” Smith’s convictions, which went back to 1904, included one of three years’ penal servitude for larceny and receiving. He had also been sentenced to six months in Berlin for larceny. Thornton had been sentenced on numerous occasions since 1906, most of his convictions being for loitering and pocket-picking. He received a 14 mouths’ sentence in Dublin for taking £205, and_ had also been convicted for frequenting, assaulting the police, and under the Prevention of Crimes Act.

Collins’s convictions were for being a suspected person, loitering, being an incorrigible rogue, and larceny. He and Smith we££ last charged in February of this year.

Detective Evans, who arrested the men single-handed, was highly commended by the chief constable. “The prisoners,” remarked Mr Derham, “ were working the tram cars, and it speaks volumes for Detective Evans that he should tackle alone three men with such bad records. One man did escape, but the officer got him again.” According to a leading legal authority the action of the Bench in acceding to the request of the chief constable that the money found on the prisoners should be used for their maintenance in prison is perfectly in order. The authority said that assuming that the men were charged under the Vagrancy Act of 1824, the procedure was justified by the section 5, George IV, chap. 83, section S. This section, which consists of some COO words, is paraphrased in “ Stone’s Justice Manual” as follows: “ Any money found upon, or in the possession of, any offender may bn applied towards the expenses of apprehending, conveying to the house of correction, and maintaining him therein, and if money sufficient for these purposes lie not found, the justice may order his effects to be sold and so applied, and the overplus to he returned to the offender. “ Note.—The costs of conviction may be adjudged. (Summary Jurisdiction Act).” That is to say, the costs of conviction may be taken out of such money, at the discretion of the justice.