FALSE PRETENCES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 9, 6 October 1943, Page 6

FALSE PRETENCES

Woman With Six Children . Sentenced

Ethel Eleanor Ray, aged 37, domestic, .who had pleaded guilty to seven charges ’of false pretences, appeared before the {Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) in ■the Supreme Court, Wellington, yester- ■ 'day, and was sentenced to three years’ ’reformative detention on each charge, the terms to be served concurrently. For the prisoner, Mr. A. J. Mazengarb '.said that she had been left to fend for dierself at the age of 13 years. At 15 she '.was committed to the care of the fialva;tion Army, and for escaping she received ‘two months’ imprisonment. Latex 1 she ■received two years’ reformative detention »for theft. She had had a particularly ■» start, but, for 18 years since ther marriage, she had lived a good life bind brought up six children. The present 'offences originated in trouble over the 'rent of her home 14 Christchurch. She ‘entered into negotiations fox - the purchase of the house anti the landlord allowed the rent to stand over. To explain the position to her husband she ‘told him that she had come into a legacy ’from her uncle. From there the trouble [began, and she said that, once started, 'she could not stop. She was living in a '•dream world of her own creation. She ■actually sent her husband and family on holiday, and entered into negotiations for the purchase of an hotel. Sentencing the prisoner, his Honour said that the fact that she would have to be sent to prison might be very serious for her husband and six children, but it could not be helped. If there had been only one charge, the Court might have teen its way to foe more lenient, but there was a series of charges and a large amount of money was involved, which probablv some of the people concerned could ill afford to lose. The sentence would be reformative detention rather than hard labour, because that would enable the case to be reconsidered earlier by the Prisons Board. .