A BANKRUPT IMPRISONED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16486, 27 February 1914, Page 5

A BANKRUPT IMPRISONED.

[Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, February 26

Another instance of the far-reaching character of the recent Labour troubles in the matter of their reaction on the life of the community in remote places came before the Police Court this morning. A bankrupt named William Thomas Martin (31), in admitting that ho obtained', credit by misrepresentation, pleaded in the extenuation of his wrongdoing that ho had a wife and three young children to keep and had had to fight for them with his back to' the wall, in oonsequence of his being a “marked” man because of his attitude during a strike episode. Mr E. C. Cutten, S.M., said that he had long ago decided in cases of fraud under the Bankruptcy Act there must always be a term of imprisonment imposed upon conviction. People who lost the creditors’ money in this way, though not dishonest in. the ordinary sense, were a great detriment to the community. They went into business in which they used someone else’s capital. If there was a loss it fell on the creditors. If, again, it went to the benefit of the other person it lvas a case of “heads I win/ tails the other fellow loses.” His Worship was sorry to impose imprisonment in this case, but it was necessary in the interests of the community. Defendant would be sentenced to a month’s hard labour.