APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 16

APPEAL AGAINST SENTENCE

Term Halved By Supreme Court (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, April 29. The Court was in an embarrassing position, said Mr Justice Stanton in the Auckland Supreme Court today. He was dealing with an appeal by a man sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment for receiving stolen property. The prisoner, William Joseph Flynn, aged 43, a salesman, who had been sentenced by an Auckland Magistrate, submitted that the thief himself, sentenced in Rotorua, had escaped with a fine of £2O. His Honour reduced Flynn’s sentence to six months. For Flynn, Mr Lloyd Brown said the prisoner brought a load of goods to Auckland from Rotorua in a rental van as a favour to a friend. He did not realise until the goods were loaded that they were stolen. Mr S. A. Cleal, for the Crown, said the thief, named Legge, told the police Flynn had incited him to commit the crime. His Honour recalled a similar disparity of sentence some years ago, in which one thief, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment and another, involved in the same crime, pleaded not guilty and was sentenced in the Supreme Court to three years. On appeal, this was reduced to two years.