SUPREME COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22398, 20 October 1934, Page 24

SUPREME COURT

PRISONERS SENTENCED FIFTEEN MONTHS’ HARD LABOUR. Richard Vernon Neville, a sharebroker, was sentenced in the Supreme Court yesterday by His Honor, Mr Justice Kennedy to 15 months’ imprisonment with hard labour on a charge that, having received £260 from Thomas James White on terms requiring him to pay the amount to Thomas William Dobbie, he fraudulently converted the sum of £173 6s 8d to his own use, thereby committing theft. Mr A. C, Hanlon, K.C., with him Mr R. S. Frapwell, appeared for the prisoner. Mr Hanlon, addressing the court, said that in addition to the charge upon which Neville appeared for sentence, a number of charges had been brought against him in the lower court—charges which were being held over till the major charge had been dealt with. The prisoner had given the police every assistance in investigating the matters. Apart from those offences there were no convictions against him except several for minor breaches of motor regulations. The accused was 31 years of age, and was educated in , Dunedin at the Arthur Street School and the Otago Boys’ High School. He lost his father in 1911, and his mother died in 1923. In 1924 he was married, there being three children, aged nine, six and five years. He had followed various occupations, including farming and music teaching. Then he took a course in salesmanship, obtaining a situatjon with V. B. MTnnes and Co., one of the companies whose operations were being investigated by a Royal Commission in New South Wales at the present time. Later lie started business on his own as a salesman. He did well, but it was only business on paper. Feeling thdt he was making money, he began to live at a rate which he thought was justified. The income, however, was more or less non-existent, and did not turn out as he anticipated, the prisoner being led into committing the offences, hoping that things would turn out all right. Till the offences occurred he had lived an upright life. Unfortunately, he was a man with family responsibilities, and his wife and three children would have to be supported while he expiated his offences. Learned counsel asked his Honor to extend as much leniency as he possibly could in the circumstances. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr F. B. Adams) said he thought it was only fair to sharebrokers in general to point out that Neville carried on business in a manner that was not usual among sharebrokers. At one period 'the accused employed no fewer than IS salesmen, and had an office in Christchurch. That seemed to indicate the type of business, which was house-to-house canvassing for shares. Counsel pointed out that the commission on the £2OO was no less than 33 1-3 per cent., amounting to £B6 13s 4d. The prisoner, however, was not content with the commission, but took the balance of the money for his own purposes. “ You have pleaded guilty to misappropriation of the sum of £170,” said his Honor, in passing sentence. “It appears that you offered to sell shares for £260. You collected certain moneys for those shares, and applied the sum of £l7O odd to your own purposes. Probation is not recommended, nor does this offence stand alone. The sentence of the court is that you be imprisoned with hard labour for 15 months.”

Neville appeared in the Police Court yesterday afternoon in connection with nine other charges of theft —involving a total of £l27—that were preferred against him after the major charge had been heard in the lower court. In view of the fact that Neville had already been sentenced in the Supreme Court, convictions only were entered on each of these nine charges. THREE YEARS' IMPRISONMENT. Alfred George Glover was sentenced to reformative detention for three years on a charge of having committed indecent assault upon a female aged eight years. His Honor said the accused had shown an inability to control his inclinations, and it was clear that, for the public protection and for the prisoner’s own good, he should be placed under strict control. (Pee United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, October 19. Prisoners were sentenced by Mr Justice Reed to-day as follows’:— For negligently driving a motor ear, thereby causing injury, Robert William Gunn was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution (£2 18s), in default an additional month. Mr Justice Reed said he had dealt with the case from the point of view of endeavouring to protect the public from negligent driving. It was not so much a question of punishing the prisoner as it was that some punishment should be inflicted which would be a possible deterrent to others. He did not think the prisoner would have been so inhuman as to have gone on had he known a man was under the car. This was the case in which Ernest Alfred Harnor was knocked from a bicycle at Kilbirnie and dragged some distance under the car. John Lilian Brown, on a charge of forgery, was sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution (£1 ss). Topeora Maewa Ames, aged 32, a married woman, for demanding money with menaces from the licensee of the Paekakariki Hotel, was admitted to pro-

bation for two years and ordered to pay costs. Mr Justice Reed pointed out that a serious view was taken by the Legislature of crimes of this nature and impressed pn prisoner that leniency had been extended to her. If she had been previously convicted of. an offence involving dishonesty she would have been liable to 14 years’ imprisonment. Roy Baxter Caulton and Francis Henry Ernest Pierce, for breaking and entering and theft at Waipukurau, were each sentenced to 18 months’ reformative detention. Spencer Crawford Faulkner, for indecent assault on a male, was sentenced to two years in the Borstal.