A SERIOUS OFFENCE.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VI, Issue 1785, 3 November 1919, Page 11

A SERIOUS OFFENCE.

POSTAL OFFICIAL'S LAPSE.

At the Supreme Court this morning, i before his Honour Mr Justice Herdman, Charles Halma Harrington, a postal 'official, appeared for sentence on the 'following charges: —(1) That between November 1, 1918, and August 16, 1919, at Kaikoura, he destroyed a number of letter's; (2) that between August 2 and August 17, 1919, at Kaikoura, he wilfully delayed and detained a number of letters.

Mr J. A. Cassidy, on behalf of the prisoner, said his client was about 18 years of age. He had been employed es a letter-earner at Kaikoura. As far B3 counsel knew, there was no suggestion that the accused had stolen any jnoney. He asked that Harrington should be admitted to probation. Michael Charles Harrington, father of the accused, said he had never had any trouble with his son. If the accused were admitted to probation, he would undertake to see that he was kept in constant employment. His Honour said he could not admit accused to probation, becauso offences ■under the Post and Telegraph Act were regarded as serious. They had become too frequent of late. Harrington was sentenced to 12 Bionths' reformatory treatment on each charge, the sentences to be concurrent.