FORTY YEARS OF CRIME

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 24, 23 October 1918, Page 9

FORTY YEARS OF CRIME

ELDERLY' MAN'S OFFENCES.

A enrcer of ( crime extending over a period of 41 yehrs was stated to be the unenviable record of an elderly man named Harold Bay, who pleaded guilty before Mr. Y. V. Frazcr, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court yesterday to six charges of obtaining goods and money by means of valueless cheques. • The details of tho charges were that on September 30 accused obtained fi'om Young Tang, Manners Street, a quantity ' of fruit vahied at .Is; M.; and .C 2 -18s. 3d. in'money, by •means of a valueless cheque; 'on October Bhe obtained a box of'chocolates', y«lued at ss. Cd., Is. lid. from Bennett'and Co.; on September 19, at Picton, he received tho sum of £i . from' James M. Sloan; on September' 20 lie obtained a further sunjr of £2 from Sloan; on October'lo, at Wellington, he obtained ,£3 from. Henry Robert Wallace; and on October 11 ho received from Hem-)' Robert Wallace ; a further sum of £3. . ' , According to tho evidence it was stated that on two occasions accused obtained blank cheques from people whom he subsequently defrauded. He stated that he had an account at the Bank of Aew Zealand, Napier. To one man -ho stated that he,was travelling as representative of a Napier brewery firm, and said he had some land which he was endeavouring to sell. He also' said he had about .£12,000' in-the bank at. Napier, Acting Sub-Inspector Emerson said accused had a lengthy list of previous convictions, of which 20 were for false pretences and similar offences, commencing as far back as 1877. The last occasion on which he had been before the Court was in 1015, when ho was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and ordered to undergo not- more than three years reformative treatment. However, ho Was released on probation in 1917. His Worship said the only thing he could do would be to impose a sentence that would keep Bay out of trouble for as long as possible. Bay would be sentenced to six months' imprisonment, to be followed by not more than three years' reformative treatment.