SENTENCE REDUCED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19886, 14 March 1939, Page 16

SENTENCE REDUCED

DUAL VOTING OFFENCE TERM OF ONE MONTH APPEAL COURT DECISION (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Court of Appeal has reduced to one month's imprisonment the sentence of six months' imprisonment imposed by Mr. Justice Reed at New Plymouth in February, 1939, on Percy Allen for the offence of dual, voting. Mr. J. D. Willis, appearing in support, of the prisoner's application for a reduction of the sentence, submitted that the original sentence was excessive and the prisoner, now having served' three weeks, should be released. He referred to the affidavit of Allen's medical attendant filed si'nee the sentence was imposed and said that, the affidavit, together with the evidence given when the prisoner was charged, showed that he had been affected by drink when the offencewas committed. It was clear that the offence was not a deliberate attempt to deceive the returning officer because the prisoner was a well-known figure to everyone, including a police constable at the booth. Moreover, there was no attempt at personation and the second voting occurred within a quarter of an hour of the first. Counsel also referred to a case which came before the Supreme Court at Napier on the same day where, for a similar offence, a prisoner had been 'admitted to probation.

The Solicitor-General,, Mr. H. H. Cornish, appearing for the Crown, said it was just a case of a rather disreputable individual being detected in a rather serious offence. If the court took the view that /the' prisoner did not know what he was doing, it was competent for the court to treat it more benevolently, but the sentence hould not be reduced to the extent suggested by Mr. Willis. The Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, said that, speaking for himself, he regarded the offence as a serious one. One could' quite see that in a closely-contested election, a few cases of dual voting could be a very serious thing for the candidates and for the country. Apart from that, Parliamentary elections must be kept clean.

However, it appeared that the case was one where the offender was under the influence of liquor. He was impressed by the. affidavit of the medical practitioner, which was not before Mr. Justice Reed when the prisoner was sentenced. His Honour felt that if the affidavit had been .before Mr. Justice Reed the sentence under consideration would not have been imposed. He thought justice would be served, if the sentence were reduced to one month, Mr. Justice Ostler and Mr. Justice Smith agreed to the reduction, pointing out that they did so because they took the view that the-offence was not a deliberate attempt to interfere with the election.