MOTOR-CAR THEFTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18203, 26 September 1933, Page 9

MOTOR-CAR THEFTS

■PROTEST TO GOVERNMENT THE “CONVERSION” FARCE HEAVIER PENALTIES URGED ! Basing its protest on the case of Constable Stewart, who was seriously injured while endeavoring to apprehend a motor-car thief at Grey Lynn, Auckland, the North Island Motor f Union ia again tb urge the Government's to provide heavier penalties for (“conversion” of cars, I A memorandum is to be sent to various Cabinet Ministers pointing out that the conversion of cars is a erimo * that has steadily grown in volume and seriousness during the past few years. ,The reason for its growth, the union alleges, is that the Justice Department has resolutely refused to consider any suggestions f,or inflicting a more severe penalty. The maximum penalty for conversion is three months’ imprisonment or a line of £2O. a penalty too light to act as a deterrent. Horse-stealing and sheepstealing, it is remarked, have been practically stamped out because for these offences the criminal may receive up to 14 years’ imprisonment. 1 ‘ The reasons advanced by the department -why the motorist’s, property should be the sport of any thief who cares to come along,” the memorandum continues, “are (a) that the cost of - prosecution would be heavier, (b) that convictions would be harder to secure because the defendants would come before a jury, and (c) that it is not desirable that the penalty should be too severe because the offenders m most cases aro young people and not criminals in the accepted sense of the term.”

HEAVY TOLL IN TAXATION. To the third departmental objection, the union replies that the constable now in the Auckland Hospital would probably not subscribe to the view that such offenders were not criminal.

The other objections are answered as follows: —“Motorists in this country aro paying nearly £3,000,000 a year in taxation, and therefore they are entitled to have their property protected, even if the cost of prosecution should be a little heavier. The argument that convictions would bo harder to secure because the cases would come before a jury is utterly unconvincing. Motorists in this country are satisfied that if these motorcar thieves came before juries and the penalties for the conversion ,of cars were heavier the juries would see that proper verdicts wbre returned, and the Judges can be relied upon to impose sentences suitable to each case.

‘ - ASSISTING THE POLICE. “Regarding the argument that the cost of prosecutions would become heavier, the Justico Department seems indifferent to the c,ost of recovering motor cars that have been stolen at one-place and removed to a consider* able distance; nor does it regard for a moment the damage almost always done to the car that is stolen. lurther, it surely cannot be maintained that justice in this country is to be measured by £.s.d. . . “So serious did the problem become,” the memo, states, “that somo years ago (the automobile associations in the Dominion arranged with tho Broadcasting Company to 1 broadcast descriptions of stolen cars so as to assist the police and the automobile association road patrols to recover the stolon vehicles. This service had.been continued by the Broadcasting Board but the Justice Department stood aloof. In two districts in New Zealand the conversion of motor-cars had ■become so alarming that motorists had voluntarily ’offered their ears and services to the police to assist the latter to recover stolen vfihicles.” | ' j a..Bsgi^aggs»