SUPREME COURT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 275, 22 November 1870, Page 2

SUPREME COURT.

Criminal Sittings. [Before his Honor Mr. Justice Richmond.] FORGING AND UTTERING. Mary Needham, who ye3terday pleaded guilty to this offence, was sentenced, to two years' imprisonment. LARCENY AND FORGERY. Francis Harris was placed at the bar charged with the above offences. Mr. W. Pitt aud Mr. Fell appeared for the pvisouer, who pleaded guilty to two charges of forgery. On the third indictment beiDg read, his Honor asked whether it was the intention of the prisoner to plead ffuilty to the whole of the charges. Mr. Pitt said that he had consulted with the Crown Prosecutor, who had stated his willingness to withdraw the other charges, provided the prisoner pleaded guilty to the two first. Mr. Adams said that the counsel for the prosecution had asked him whether he would press all the charges, to which he had replied that he would not do so, unle3S the Court insisted upon it. His Honor said that it was always his practice, if a number of charges heariug upon the same offence \vvre brought against a prisoner, to deal with the whole as one offence of an aggravated form. It was necessary to multiply the charges so far, and so far only, as was sufficient co put the Court in full possession of the character of the alleged offence, and ia ihis case he should treat the larceny and forgery as one, as it appeared that the latter had been resorted to to cover the defalcations created by the former. It was then decided that the charge of larceny and the remaining indictments for forgery should be withdrawn. Mr. Pitt then addressed the Court in mitigation of sentence. He hoped that his Honor would be able to see that some reasons — he would not say justification nor excuse — but that some reasons existed for the offence of which the prisoner had acknowledged himself guilty. He hoped further that the difficult position that the prisoner had occupied would be taken into consideration. The places in which, he had to carry out his various duties were numerous and scattered ; now at Westport, now at Brighton, then at Cobden, and again at the Grey, and from all these places vouchers came in, aid at each of them there were numbers of persons payiug money, and to whom money had to be paid. In keeping such a multiplicity of accounts, it was extremely easy to fall into arrears, and this, as it appeared, had proved to be the case, and when the horrible deficiencies became known to the prisoner, he had, in order to secure time wherein to clear himself with his employers, most probably, committed the forgeries before the Court. Those forgeries were of such a clumsy character that it was impossible to conceive they were executed with a deliberate intention to defraud, but merely with a view to procure time. He (Mr. Pitt) trusted that his Honor would consider the frightful punishment that had already been inflicted upon the prisoner, and the utter ruin that had fallen upon himself and family. For a man who had occupied his station in life the mere fact of being placed in the position he then occupied was a far greater punishment than any the Court could inflict upon him. It had come to the ears of the prisoner since he had been in confinement that he had accused others of being privy to the offences with which he was charged, and he wished to say that there existed no foundation whatever for such an assertion. In conclusion he would ask the Court to consider the services rendered by the prisoner, who for thirteen years had been in the Government employ, and against whom, until this time, no complaint whatever had been made. The slovenly way, too, in which the accounts were kept in such places as he had to perform his duties in was well known and must present many difficulties and temptations against which it was hard to fight at all times successfully. Such temptations, and the generally vitiated atmosphere oi the goldfields in which the prisoner had been called upon to live for so long a time would, he hoped, weigh with his Honor, and incline him to leniency in passing sentence. His Honor said, Prisoner at the bnr, if I could give credit to the representations made by your counsel, it would make a considerable difference in the

sentence I am about to pass upon yoir He has, in a somewhat hesitating manner, asked me to believs that you did not appropriate any portion of the money for which you have attempted to account by forging these documents, but that the I deficiencies arise from errors in the , accounts. I might call upon the prosecution to state how far they consent to such a view of the case; I shall not do so, however, but shall proceed to pass sentence upon you as having been guilty of embezzlement and forgery. If, at any future time, it should, upon investigation, 1 be found that grouuds exist for supposing that this view of the case is 1 a true one, it might entitle you Ito the mercy of the Crown in mitigation of your sentence, but I must now deal with you as having been guilty of the graver offence. It has been s said that you have hitherto been a good ; servant of the Government, and have borne an unblemished character, and this, of course, must have been the case, or you , would not have been placed in the position , of trust occupied by you, but unfortunately for the public, and disastrously for yourself, you have taken advantage of the trust reposed in you, and therefore I cannot take that into consideration in passing senteuce. For either of the offences to which you have pleaded guilty, I am entitled to sentence you to penal servitude for life. I shall not now, however, go so far as that, but it is becoming necessary to deal most severely with these cases of embezzlement, more especially when aggravated by forgery, as in the present case. I now sentence you to six years' penal servitude in the gaol at Nelson for the first, snd the same for the second offonce, the sentences to be cou2urrent. The Court then adjourned until tomorrow, at 10 o'clock, when the civil cases will be heard.