PRISON TERMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26616, 12 November 1947, Page 6

PRISON TERMS

FARMERS - OFFENCES THEFTS FROM RAILWAYS “There is no excuse whatever, for these offences, which were conducted in a most impudent manner,” commented Mr J.- D. Willis, S.M., in imposing prison terms on Cecil Robert Coutts, aged 36, and Hector William McLeod, aged 36, two well-known farmers in the Palmerston district, who pleaded guilty in the Palmerston Court yesterday to charges of the theft of railway sleepers. Counsel for the accused, Mr J. P. Ward, announced that he intended to appeal against the sentence. The accused admitted a joint charge of stealing 38 railway sleepers valued at £9 10s, the property of the New Zealand Government, and taken from the main north railway line near Bushey on October 12. Coutts pleaded guilty to the theft on December 1, 1945, and on various dates between then and May 30, 1947, of one tarpaulin, eight lengths of railway line, three tie chains, and 11 sleepers, of a total value of £2B 12s 6d. McLeod pleaded guilty to stealing on April 1, and between then and September 13, 1947, a tarpaulin and five lengths of railway line, of a total value of £l6 15s. On the first charge, each Of the accused was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour, and they were convicted on the other charges. Case ftfr Prosecution Detective-sergeant R. J[. Berry, who conducted the prosecution, said '.the thefts were regarded very seriously by the Railways Department, and added that altogether 226 sleepers replaced by new ones on the Bushey section of the main north line had been, stolen recently. He said that Coutts pymed two farms, one at Palmerston and the other at Macrae’s Flat, and a run of 1800 acres at Stoneburn. Inquiries made by the police, jMr Berry continued, showed that on October 12, sleepers were taken in a truck from the track at Bushey to McLeod’s property and to Coutts’s farm at Palmerston. The sleepers were valued at 5s each. Three of the. tie chains stolen by Coutts were among 12 removed from the railway line at Palmerston. The tarpaulin was found in his wool shed and other property was discovered at Stoneburn. Some of the rails were used as strainer posts, and Coutts had sold lengths of line'to a neighbour for 15s each. It appeared that both men regarded railway property as fair game, and took what they wanted. The two men had been responsible for stealing property of a total value of £54 17s 6d.

Counsel’s Plea Mr Ward, in asking for leniency, said that both the accused were well respected in the district and this was their first offence “ Just as some people lodge false income tax returns, who would never steal a penny, so do some people believe they can take Govern--ment property,” said counsel. The rails taken from near the Bushey station were rusty and twisted and had been lying there since 1937. “ When the Railways Department leaves equipment about in such an * abandoned state, it is no wonder that it goes missing,” Mr Ward added. He contended that the tarpaulins taken by both men had only been borrowed, but his Worship pointed out that Coutts had had his for two years. In reply to a further statement by Mr Ward, the magistrate said he would have been failing in his duty had he not imposed a term of imprisonment. Mr Ward informed the Daily Times last night that the necessary appeals had been lodged in each case and the accused would remain at liberty pending the hearing of the appeals.