PROBATION GRANTED.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13179, 11 February 1936, Page 2

PROBATION GRANTED.

TAXI-DRIVERS SENTENCED. PLAYED MINOR PART. Electric Telegraph—Press Association PALMERSTON N., February 7. Taking into consideration the strong recommendations to mercy put forward by the juries, and holding the view that both men had played a very minor part, Mr Justice Blair in the Supreme Court at Palmerston. North to-day admitted W illiam lan Hankins, aged 20, and John Armand Borlase, aged 29, both taxi-drivers, to probation for two years when they appeared for sentence. They were found guilty ol aiding and abetting Edwin Bloomheld McGill to set fire to a house at 128 College Street on October 28, 1935. McGill, who pleaded guilty in the lower court to a charge of arson, is at present serving a sentence of five years’ hard labour. Mr T. F. Helling, ,who appeared for Hankins, said the whole of the facts having been disclosed, his Honour would recognise that the two prisoners were not in the same category as the men who had been sentenced. His Honour: That is abundantly clear, I think. I advised the juries to consider whether these men were technically guilty, and by their recommendations the juries invited me to look at the whole of th© facts.. They just played a very minor part. Mr Rolling said Hankins had always been of good character previously, and to sentence a young man of only 20 to imprisonment might lead him on the downward path. His Honour.- I don’t intend to do so in either of these cases. Mr G. E,. Rowe, for Borlase, said he had nothing to add to what Mr Rolling had said. His Honour said the circumstances disclosed that both men had succumbed to a sudden suggestion without realising the gravity of the step they were taking, and they had not aggravated their offence in any way. In admitting both to probation for two years, his Honour said he would not impose any onerous conditions, but would order that each pay £5 16s, the amounts of the prosecution, in such instalments as the probation officer thought fit.