AUCKLAND SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 120, 14 February 1921, Page 6

AUCKLAND SUPREME COURT

CARELESS BUSINESS MEN REBUKED.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, February 12. For the first time in Auckland the suppression, of the names of two accused was ordered at the Supreme Court by Mr. Justice Stringer. A man and a woman were charged with having made false statement in registering one of four of their children. On counsel applying . for suppression of the names, the Judge said there had been a breach of the law, but the police had. no discretionary powers, so it had been loft to him to look at the surrounding circumstances. It was as venial offence as could possibly be committed. He fined the man 40s. costs, but no fine was imposed on the womanA sentence of twelve months’ imprisonment was passed on Thomas Davis, who pleaded guilty to being concerned in the theft of electrical goods from two warehouses, and on Arthur Ernest Coham, who was found guilty of similar offences arising out of the same burglaries. "These firms deserve to lose their money because of the careless way in which they seem to manage their business.” said the Judge, dealing with John Andrew Riddell (22), who obtained <£237 from the local stock firms by false pretences. His Honour added that such business methods offered an incentive to crime. Accused was placed on three years’ probation, and was ordered to pay back by instalments half the amount lost by the two firms concerned. Leonard C. Garment, aged 19, admitted forging and uttering a cheque at Hamilton. His Honour placed accused on. probation, and prohibited him from racecourses and. billiard saloons. This, said His Honour, was another instance of gross carelessness on the part of people dealing with cheques. ' Accused had simply walked into a storekeeper’s premises and cashed a cheque on which ho had written a customer’s name. How people kept out of the Bankruptcy Court when they conducted business in that way he could not understand. William Edwards, for breaking and entering a dwelling at Dargaville, and theft, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. Probation was ordered in a number of cases involving various offences.