SENT TO BORSTAL

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 88, 8 January 1935, Page 14

SENT TO BORSTAL

Breaking Into Telephone

Cabinets

Convicted of having on five occasions broken telephone .slot machines iu the Wellington district with the idea of stealing the money from them, a youth of 20, Frank Ernest Parker, was yesterday committed to Borstal by Mr. W. F. Stilwell, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court.

The charges involved damage to telephone slot machines to the exteut of £4/4/3, theft of money amounting to £l/9/-, and attempted theft of 11/6.

Detective-Sergeant Hall, who prosecuted, said that a telephone cabinet had been broken into at Lyall Bay and cash stolen; similar offences had occurred at Daniel Street, at Stokes Street, near Athletic Park, and at The Terrace. It appeared that two screwdrivers had been used to force the machines open. Finally Constable Honeybone had seen accused trying to open a machine at Petone. Accused was described as living with his father and receiving a small pittance for work as a motor mechanic. He had apparently considered this sum insufficient for his needs, and had chosen that method of augmenting it.

As accused was still liable to be called up for sentence for a previous conviction for theft at Onehunga last year, Mr. Stilwell decided to send him to a Borstal institute for a period net exceeding two years, on the charge of breaking the machine at Lyall Bay, and on the other charges he was to come up for sentence if called on wita:n two years.,