SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 201, 20 May 1919, Page 3

SUPREME COURT

'• THEFT CHARGES A WEST INDIAN CONVICTED Kts Honour the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Slout) was on the bench at the Supreme Court jesterday, and dealt with criminal cases. A West Indian named James Arthur Pollard, also kj.own as Archie Taylor, pleaded not guilty to breaking and entering the premises of Oscar llull-Brown nt No; 187 Vivian Street, and stealing various musical instruments of a total value of =£125. ilr. P. S. s lv. Macnssey, of the Crown Lav; Office, appeared for the Crown, and the prisoner was. not represented by. counsel. Mr. John Donaldson was foreman of the jury. Tho evidence was the same as that given in tlUi Lower Court. The accused declined' to give evidence or to call witnesses. In nddressing the jury he acknowledged having helped in the sale of the stolen goods, but xlenied having broken and entered fhe shop. After a short retirement the returned, and presented a verdict of guilty. The prisoner was remanded until to-day, when a second charge of theft preferred against him will be heard. ALLEGED THEFT OF TOOLS. Albert William Jfurray pleaded not guilty to tho charge that about the month of July, 1917, he did commit the theft of a kit of carpenter's tools, valued at ,t3. the property •• of Charles B. Nixon. Mr. P. W. Jackson appeared for the accused, and Mr. P. S. K. Macassey for the Crown. Mr. D. F. Skinner was foreman of the jury. J According to the statement of the case the complainant was C. 13. Nixon, a carpenter and a married man, who went away with the Expeditionary Force in _ June, 191G' Prior to leaving the Dominion he lived in Brooklyn. He left a kit of tools in the care of his wife, but gave her no authority to sell the tools. He gave her authority to sell a section of land —in Brooklyn. On his return in' October, 1918. ho discovered that his wife was living in I'aranaki Street. He saw the accused at the house, and he was introduced under the name of Morris. The accused was supposed to be renting the front room in his wife's house. Ivixon missed his kit of .tools, and it was afterwards discovered that the tools had been pawned with Jame3 William Batten. licensed pawnbroker, on November 6. 1017, und were redeemed by a lad named Fenby on August 10, 191 S. The pawnticket' was sold by accused to Fenby for 2s.

Tlif, evidence for the prosecution was on the same lines as that given in the Magistrate's Court.. For .the defence, Maria Jane Nixon, wife of the complainant, gave evidence that she sold the kit of tools to Murray tfor .£5, because she was then pushed for . money. There was no direct authority given her for the sale of the tools, but she took it. that she had authority in a general way under the written authority given her by her husband to sell the section at Brooklyn. When her husband returned he asked about the tools, and she told him that she had sold them for ;£5.

In cross-examination she denied having told her husband that she lent the tools lo a man named Bailey for .£5. The name of Bailey was never mentioned. She.tpld her husband that 6he sold the tools to Murray for .£5. After a retirement of about a quarter of an ~hour tho jury came in and returned a verdict of guilty. The -prisoner was remanded to Friday. His Honour remarked that the prisoner liad no ff.tfer than twenty previous convictions, and in addition had been declared a habitual criminal, and "had been let out on probation by the Prisons, Board. 'Now he had upset the Nixoiv family, and had ruined ill is unfortunate woman whom he had deceived.