FAREWELL IN DOCK

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1935, Page 15

FAREWELL IN DOCK

MAN AND WIFE EMBRACE MOTOR-CAR FRAUD CASE. John Thomas Eric Stephenson, 58, an ex-hotelkeeper, and Helen Stephenson, his wife, were found guilty at the Quarter Sessions on a charge of having, at Sydney, on February 1, 1934, obtained a cheque for £9O from the Pearl Insurance Company by false pretences. Stephenson was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, and his wife to 12 months, says the Sydney Morning Herald. Mrs. Stephenson burst into tears when the jury announced its verdict. After sentence had been passed husband and wife embraced each other in the dock before being parted. The Crown alleged that Stephenson and his wife falsely represented that a sedan car, insured in the name of Helen Stephenson, was stolen on January 31, 1934, whereas the car had been given new engine and chassis numbers, re-registered in the name of J. M. Stephenson on January 15, and sold by the male accused on January 19 to a man named Fitzsimmons.

In passing sentence, Judge Thomson said that the prisoners' had planned a systematic fraud, and it had been successful. Theft offence was too serious to be passed over too leniently. Detective-Sergeant Bowie said that he began his inquiries into the case when,' 1 on April 12, he saw Stephenson and his son in the Transport Office, endeavouring to register a motor-car on which the engine and chassis numbers had been altered, and which he later found had been stolen. He found that Stephenson had been concerned in the theft of five cars, and his wife with three of these cars. In one case concerning the purchase of a car by Stephenson, under the name of Stevenson, an insurance policy had been taken out and, before the expiry of the policy, the car had been reported stolen and the insurance money collected by Stephenson. Stephenson and his wife had mentioned the name of a man from whom, they said, they had bought cars. They mentioned. an address which, they said, this man had told them had been his. When witness visited this address he

found that the man was not known there. Witness said that he was satisfied that the wife and son had been acting under the domination of Stephenson. He had hoped at one stage that Mrs. Stephenson would make a confession, and her evidence denying the charge had surprised him. He had found her obliging and helpful during his inquiries. Stephenson had conducted hotels in the city and country, and during this period he and his wife had borne good characters. Mrs. Stephenson had been looked upon by her friends as having excellent qualities.