CIGARETTE THIEF.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17410, 12 December 1924, Page 1

CIGARETTE THIEF.

REFORMATIVE TREATMENT FOR THREE YEARS. For stealing about £25 worth oi cigarettes and other small goods, a young man named Archibald Poreival Clarke to-day was sentenced to reformative treatment for throe rears. Clarke’s lawyer. Mr Gee.' in asking that he should l>e admitted to probation, said that he had had a bad upbringing. He hid been convicted of theft at Kaikoura. In Wellington lie was before the Courts for a breach* of the peace, hut it was due to ‘he fact that his wife was going with another man. In October last he went into the Christchurch Hospital suffering , from epileptic fits and stomach trouble. He left before he was advised to do so, could not get a job, was not allowed to stay at his father’s home, and had to sleep out in the open.- Ho could get work at Maungahau. Shannon, in the North Island. He would be all right if he was kept at woik. His Honor said that the police reported that C’larko was a confirmed liar. Mr "Brown said that Clarke had spent much time around town stealing cigarettes. VI is Honor: 1 don’t understand how nooontly purchase cigarettes from a seller like the prisoner.