PROBATION GRANTED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20109, 1 December 1939, Page 4

PROBATION GRANTED

TERM OF TWO YEARS WOMAN CLERK’S THEFTS RARE KIND OF CASE (Per Press Association t WELLINGTON, this day. Doris Jones, clerk, Waipukurau, who pleaded guilty at Napier to stealing sums of money totalling £637 11s from the Waipukurau County Council, was admitted to probation for two years by Mr. Justice Blair in the Supreme Court yesterday. Mr. W. E. Leicester, ih asking for probation, said the social consequences were far more disastrous for a woman than for a man and the task of rehabilitation was more difficult. His Honour said he found in his experience that it was useless to order a prisoner to make restitution when there was no possibility of it being made, though he would have liked to have ordered it. In this case he was confident that the prisoner would fulfil the confidence that ijad been placed in her by granting probation.

In all cases where misappropriation had continued over a period of years and had been committed by a person in a position of trust, it was almost the invariable rule that the benefit of probation was not allowed. It was true that in this case misappropriation had continued over a long period, but punishment as a deterrent had little application. A great many women occupied such positions of trust, and one might call the present case One of the kind which was very rare indeed. The young woman prior to the offence had led a perfectly blameless life, and her home conditions were in every respect admirable.