PRISONERS SENTENCED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 190, 13 August 1931, Page 6

PRISONERS SENTENCED

THE SUPREME COURT i t BREAKING AND ENTERING ’’ VALUELESS CHEQUES ISSUED c “You have an unenviable record,” said Air .Justice Blair when sentencing , Thomas Kelly at the Supreme Court at Wanganui yesterday morning. Kelly was before the Court for sen- , tenco for having signed valueless cheques to the amount of £9 Is 3d and \ of having broken into a store at Al- r ton and carrying away a quantity of goods to the value of £5O. He was stat- j ed to have been convicted at Auckland j on July 29 on seven charges of theft j for which he had been sentenced to six months’ hard labour with a further -j period of two years’ reformative de- t tention. He had also many previous v convictions entered against him for f forgery and false pretences. j, “You were convicted on four t changes in 1926,” continued his Hon* our, “and you also got two years’ probation for breaking and, entering in 1926. Then there was another case in Wanganui in which you were convicted c for theft in addition to a number of * charges in Auckland for false pretences. Do you admit them” 1 ? “Yes, your Honour,” said Kelly. s “I do not know what to do with :i men like you,” continued his Honour. :i “You get hold of a cheque book—your a wife’s cheque book—and went cashing I 1 cheques round the country. I suppose * there is no use giving you more im- 0 prisonment than you have already got. “ I think the best thing to do with you is to give you a short sentence on each 11 of these cases. “I am afraid that you have qualified for declaration as an habitual crim inal, and that is how I think I had better deal with you. The sentence of the Court is that you will be imprisoned for 12 months on each of those charges, the sentence to bo concurrent with the sentence you are now serving, and you will be declared an habitual criminal.” Forgery. Tn view of the previous bad record t of Edward Scott, Air B. C. Haggitt said t that there was little he could say in d favour of the accused, who came up for o sentence at the Supreme Court at Wan- g ganui yesterday, for false pretences. L

At the time, however, at which the crime had been committed, said Air Haggitt, the accused had been out of employment and practically destitute. The prisoner would like to ask fo’- hard labour and not reformative detention. The prisoner had been in custody for six weeks. Counsel had been informed that during that time tho conduct of the accused in gaol had been exemplary. A plea for leniency was entered. “Your record shows that you were first convicted in .1920, Scott,” said Mr Justice Blair. “There we. two charges of theft. You were given a chance then and received two years’ probation. In 1922 you were given three months for false pretences-. ,In T member. 1922, you were convicted’for false pretences and you were also convicted for theft and got two years’ reformative detention. “In 1925 you were convicted for forgery and you got three years’ reformative detention. Y r ou were also detained in 1929. You have an unen-

viable record and you have spent a good deal of your time in gaol. “I think the only thing for me to do is to give you a short sentence and make a declaration that ycu are an habitual criminal. “The sente of the Court is that you be imprisoned for 12 months and to be declared an habitual criminal.”