THREE YEARS' BORSTAL.

Thames Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 17763, 10 December 1929, Page 5

THREE YEARS' BORSTAL.

YOUNG MAN'S THEFTS.

TRAVELLED ALL OVER ISLAND,

CLOTHING AND CYCLES STOLEN. Three charges of theft were preferred against a 19-year-old youth, Henry Robert John Reily, who had been remanded from last week. Thev were:

Theft of a suit, one pair of white trousers., two singlets and a silver wristlet watch from Henry Gordon Crocker at Paeroa on November 14. The value, of these was £l2/17/6.

Stealing a blue suit, value '£7, a shirt, value 12/-, and 3/- in cash from David Bruce Hastie at Karaka on November; and Stealing one man's bicycle, valued £5, from Edward Bidoes at Te Aroha on November 29.

Defendant elected to be tried by this Court, and admitted the charges except that of stealing the singlets. Sergt. Macnamara said that defendant was employed by a farmer, and borrowed the cycle, riding round the country and selling the cycle to a postal official. He then wandered around the country and got work from a farmer at Karaka and left him, taking with him a lady's cycle, which he. abandoned at Pukekohe. He then came on to Paeroa, where he shared a room with a man named Crocker, and left the next day, taking with hlim Crocker's suit, which was the one he wag now wearing. He had no money and could not make restitution. The police did not propose to offer any evidence as far as the singlets were concerned. Reily had served previous convictions and was now on probation. There was no hope of restitution, since he had no money, but the bulk of the articles had been recovered.

"There is only one thing to do with him," said the Bench, "and that is to send him back to Borstal for three years' training, and to request the authorities to place him under medical observation to ascertain his mental condition."