CONVERSION OF CARS

Southland Times, Issue 23376, 7 December 1937, Page 9

CONVERSION OF CARS

TWO YOUTHS PLEAD GUILTY 45 DIFFERENT CHARGES (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, December 6. “An irresistible impulse” was advanced as the reason for the conversion of a large number of. cars by two youths who appeared in the Magistrate’s Court today. Arthur Henry Norris, a storeman, aged 19 years, and Leslie Archie Norris, a storeman, aged 17 years, faced 45 different charges, of car conversion, the offences taking place between July 15 and November 27. The accused pleaded guilty to all the charges. ~ . Detective-Sergeant Doyle said the accused had been in the habit of running cars into one another and a number had their headlamps and other accessories smashed and the axles of others had been bent. The value of the cars subject to the charges was £8641 and the damage of the cars amounted to £476. Property to the value of £43 was missing from the cars. “The damage was done by running one car into another or running them down banks, some of them striking trees,” said the Detective-Sergeant. It seems beyond comprehension why they have not been detected earlier. All the cars were converted between 8 and 10- 3 ® p.m. and in 90 per cent, of the cases the vehicles had been abandoned before the owners discovered their loss and by the time the matter was reported, to the police the offenders were home in bed. When the accused appeared previously before the court it had been represented that they had taken 100 cars but they were charged with 45 offences only- . , . , “All that I can say m their favour is that they have been the essence of frankness,” said the Detective-Sergeant. “It seems the youngest boy no doubt has been led into these matters by the influence of his older brother.” LEADERSHIP OF BROTHER Counsel for the accused said the elder brother had been the victim of some irresistible impulse. That was the impression he (counsel) had gathered. There was some basis to this impulse which at the moment was beyond the comprehension of the ordinary layman and but for the leadership of his brother the younger boy would not be standing in the dock. In imposing sentence this afternoon Mr W. F. Stillwell, S.M., said: “It is quite clear that these two have had the advantage of a good home, an average education and not apparently any undue liberty. Yet it appears that by subterfuge and some degree of lying they availed themselves of opportunities of appropriating these cars.” This was no foolish escapade but a course of conduct which manifested criminal tendencies. The elder boy, was committed to the Borstal Institute for a term not exceeding two years on one charge and ordered to come up for sentence upon the others if called upon within two years. The younger boy was committed to the care of the Child Welfare Department and directed to be placed and trained in the Weraroa Training College for the first eighteen months of his supervision by the department.