LAW REPORTS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1515, 10 August 1912, Page 3

LAW REPORTS.

+ SUPREME COURT. (Before His Honour Mr. Justice Chnpruan.) TIER SET ASIDE FOR LONG TERM, . HIS VARIED PLEAS. SISTER WRITES TO THE JUDGE. Three prisoners came up for sentence in the Supreme Court yesterday, before Mr. Justice Chapman. Mr. P. S. K. Macossejy of tho.Crown Law Office, reprc-sented-tho Crown. A severe sentence was passed on Martin William Tier, who, on ■Wednesday last, pleaded guilty to breaking into tho shop of Messrs. Chas.' Hill and Sons, on Lambton Quay, on the evening of July 11, and stealing therefrom three pairs of silk socks, eight overcoats, and two caps, of a. total value of £K> Bs. 01d.,' also tho sum of Is. Old; in money. _ Mr. H. F. O'Leary had spoken on behalf of tho prisonw on Wednesday, and had suggested that his Honour might see his way to give Tier another chance before declaring him an habitual criminal. His Honour said that he had considered very carefully what he ehculd do with the prisoner,, and had corno to the conclusion that he had only one course open to him.. The prisoner had been convicted some timo ago on six distinct charges of the same kind as that on which he now stood convicted, and those charges referred to three different dates. Crimes of this sort differed from the ordinary crime where a person was-tempted by the eight of ftroperty and stole something on a sudden impulse. His Honour had no doubt. that tho present crime had been carefully planned, and referred to tho fact that there had been' Other men concerned, in. it, but they had got away. Speaking of a suggestion by counsel that Tier had been-handicapped in his efforts to go straight, owing to the fact that ho was pointed at by the men among whom he worked, his Honour remarked that it did not appear that tho men among whom ho worked had been as uncharitable as suggested. Nor did his Honour think that there was much in the suggestion ' that criminals were continually inviting Tier to take part in crime. If,this were ' so, it was probably because-they.regarded him as an expert housebreaker. Tier's sister had written to his Honour, and, . although that was a somewhat irregular • procedure, it was pardonable in her case. . From- her letter it appeared that, had . the prisoner desired to leave tho city, ho could have obtained work with a brother in another part of the Dominion. After ' a few further remarks, his Honour said • that Tier was—in the popular sense and 1 also the legal sense—an habitual criminal. - He would be. so -declared, and, in addi- ; tion, he woujd-.be sentenced to five years' ■ imprisonment with hard labour.

.CUTBUSH AND WILSON. . • Sentence was' also possed on two young men—Joseph Wilson and Albert Cutbush —who on- the previous day had been found guilty of .uttering a cheque for .£2O 11s., to Ernest Batchelor. ■ Mr. P. : W. Jackson,'on behalf of the prisoners,'asked-that the : youth of hi.-, clients should.; be. taken into considera. tion. Cutbush,-who was only 20 years of age, hod previously been' of good character .and had fayoufablo references from residents of Hokitika, to which town he belonged; .Wilson was 23 years of age, an 3 the,only, conviction against him prior to the present was one for petty theft. Counsel-suggested that the crime, had been,icommit.ted (on. the impulse of the mbment, and that' the case "was "one'where; probation might, bo extended.- Alrendy both prisoners had been in gaol for twelve weeks. The Crown P,roseeutor stated that the polico report was to-the'effect .that Wilson, .who was not now; living with his, parents, associated with, prostitutes of tho' worst olass. Nothing was known against Cutbush. - ...-.-.. His Honour remarked that he was sorry to have to sentence young fellows such as accused to gaol, but he had over and over again warned people that carefully planned schemes to defraud tradesmen must be followed by gaol.' The crime on which tho accused had been found guilty was a deliberate one, and must have been thought over for some days. Wilson was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, and i Cu'tbush to eight months' imprisonment, and his Honour will recommend that they be sent to the Invercargill Prison. The sum of ,£22 was found in possession of the accused,' and of this sum .220 11s. is to be refunded to Chas. Hill and Sons, tho firm that suffered by tho forged cheque being uttered.