HEAVY SENTENCES.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 493, 30 June 1932, Page 4

HEAVY SENTENCES.

Motor-car Thieves Sent to Prison. SIX MEN PUNISHED. (Special to the •‘Star.”) AUCKLAND, June 29 “ This will let people know that, if ■ they take motor-cars, they will be dealt with severely,” said the Magistrate, 1 Mr F. K. Hunt, to-day, in sentencing six men on charges of tmlawfully converting motor-cars to their own use. i Hector Charles Lindsay, aged eighteen years, a stoker; James Norman Richards, aged twenty-three, a joiner; Darcy Robert M’Devitt, aged thirtveight, a labourer; and Richard Howe, aged twenty-three, a carpenter, were each charged with unlawfully converting to their own use, on May 19, a motor-car valued at £350, belonging to Stephen Barclay. A charge of unlawfully converting to their own use a motor-car valued at £IOO, the property of William Hillyer, on May 28, was then preferred against Hector Robert Connolly, aged twenty-three years, a labourer; George William Edward Cox, aged twenty-three years, a labourer; and Richard Howe. Richards, who was described as the worst of the lot, was sentenced to six months* imprisonment. The Probation Officer said that M’Devitt had been declared an habitual criminal, and was at present on license. "It is a pity he got into trouble,” he said, “as he has been doing well. Now he maj' have to go back for years.' M’Devitt was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. Lindsay, who had not been in trouble previously, was admitted to probation for twelve months. " Howe has a bad list, but as he has assisted the police, too, I will make his sentence only two months,” said the Magistrate. " Connolly and Cox were each sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.