SENT TO BORSTAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1042, 5 August 1930, Page 1

SENT TO BORSTAL

YOUTH SENTENCED FOR HORSE-STEALING OFFENCES AT PUKEKOHE ‘‘You have been a very foolish young man,” commented Mr. Justice Herdman, in the Supreme Court this morning, in ordering a youth, Thomas James Gibson, 19, to be detained in the Waikeria Borstal Institution for two years. The crime to which Gibson pleaded guilty was horse-stealing at Pukekohe, An appeal for lenient treatment of the prisoner was made by Mr. Northcroft, who said that the youth had had the benefit of a good education, but unfortunately after leaving school he had become involved with a girl, as a result of which he was obliged to make a weekly payment. Counsel suggested that the stupid act was the result of an impulse arising from his financial embarrassment. His Honour: The horse-stealing has been systematic. HAD BEEN PREPARATION Mr. Northcroft agreed that there had been preparation in that the prisoner had gone down and represented that he had authority from the county council to collect the horses. He had entered the district, where he was known, and in broad daylight had rounded up the animals. The prisoner’s actions did not sugest that he was a danger to the community: rather were they part of an exceedingly stupid escapade, arising from his financial embarrassment or from some spirit of bravado. Counsel considered that the prisoner bad learned his lesson. In passing sentence, his Honour said it was clear that the prisoner had stolen 18 horses—an offence which was one of the most serious in the category of theft. The judge took into account the prisoner’s age in fixing the sentence. ,