AN OLD STORY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1938, Page 10

AN OLD STORY

EXPLANATION OF I RECEIVING STOLEN GOODS SCEPTICISM OF JUDGE The explanation frequently given by accused persons when charged with receiving stolen goods was commented upon by. Judge Curlewis in the Sydney Quarter Sessions. When binding over an accused who had been convicted of receiving to be of good behaviour, His Honour said to him: —“If you know how many times in this court the story is related of a stranger giving a man some clothes to pawn you would think of something original.” The accused: “It is perfectly true, Your Honour.”

His Honour: “That story is copyright. The first time I heard it was many years ago. As a matter of fact the first time the story was told was about the year 1500.” “A hundred years ago, when a man was found with a stolen horse he always said:—“l got it from a man with a red beard on the Goulburn road.’ His Honour added. “In these days fashions seemed to have changed, and now the explanation given is: ‘A stranger handed these things to me to pawn.’ No one ever thinks to ask the stranger why he does not pawn the articles himself.”

His Honour said he though that the law should be amended so that when men with previous convictions made statements in court that when they received goods they did not know they were stolen the Crown could call evidence of the previous convictions to establish guilty knowledge. . Mr Kean, K.C., senior Crowri Prosecutor: “I think it is admissible; but I would be loth to tender it.” His Honour: “There is a sort of instinct against it.”