MISUSED PROBATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 13, 16 January 1946, Page 3

MISUSED PROBATION

MAN SENTENCED TO SIX MONTHS’ GAOL A man who had previously been granted probation again appeared before Mr. J. H. Salmon, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court, Wanganui, yesterday, and was sentenced to terms of imprisonment totalling six months. Accused’s misuse of probation the day after it had been granted to him showed that his previous list was the only accurate index to his character, said the magistrate. Accused was Frank Baden-Powell Jerrom, labourer, aged 42. He was sent to prison for three months on a charge of stealing £5 from William Dickeson at Makirikiri on aJnuary 9, and was also given a sentence of three months, cumulative with the other, for a breach of his probation terms. Detective-Sergeant J. K. Robertson said that following his appearance in Court on charges of obtaining money and goods by false pretences, Jerrom had returned to his employer’s farm at Makirikiri, but did not start work. Next day Mr. Dickeson, a carrier, had called at the homestead for some bales of wool, which he loaded on his lorry himself.

Complainant put his coat, on a rafter while doing this, and forgot it. He had rung from town, and Miss Bartrum, daughter of the owner of the farm, had recovered the coat, but there was no money in it.

Accused left the farm at 5 p.m. on January 1 and came into Wanganui, the detective added. “He bought a carton of beer and gave £2 10s to a woman friend. When he was arrested later in Victoria Avenue by Constable Roberts he had 4s 4d in his possession, but the £2 10s has been returned to the police.”

The magistrate said he had granted Jerrom probation so that he could make restitution of the sums he had obtained in the first place but the very next day accused had committed a despicable theft. An order was made for the return of £2 14s 4d to complainant Dickeson.