EARLY MORNING THEFT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18025, 28 February 1933, Page 4

EARLY MORNING THEFT

YOUNG MAORI GAOLED NINE PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS Three months’ imprisonment with hard labor was the sentence imposed by Mr. P. H. Harper, S.M., in the Police Court tiiis morning on Johnnie Parker, 21, a Maori with a list of previous convictions. Parker, who was arrested by Detective McLeod a few minutes before the court opened, pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing early this morning an overcoat valued at £2 belonging to Tommy Ahuriri.

Detective McLeod explained that at about 3 o’clock this morning the accused went to the boardinghouse where Ahuriri was staying, and stole his overcoat. The accused was living in another boardinghouse about a mile away, and he had no right to be in the premises where the complainant was staying. Apparently he had been prowling round to see what he could pick up. The accused had nine previous convictions for theft and other serious offences, continued Detective McLeod. “In view of the nature of the theft, the hour it was committed, and the number of times the accused has previously been before the court,” he said, “I suggest that lie deserves a salutary sentence.” The magistrate remarked upon the number of the accused’s convictions, and pointed out that though the accused had previously been given a chance, lie had not taken it as a warning, and was now in serious trouble again. It was evident that he could not lie given any further consideration, and the only thing to be done was to sentence him to a term of imprisonment. The accused would be sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labor.