CHARGES OF THEFT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26639, 9 December 1947, Page 3

CHARGES OF THEFT

YOUNG MAN SENTENCED MORE THAN £250 INVOLVED “ During the past year this man has stolen goods and money totalling in value £253 18s 7d, from people in j different parts of New Zealand. He has : already been before the courts five times on charges of dishonesty, and j has been given light sentences, but apparently he has not yet learned his i lesson,” said Mr. J. P. Willis, S.M., in the city Police Court yesterday, when I Gordon Hobbs, a married cook, aged 26, who admitted 11 charges of theft, was sentenced to 15 months' reformai tive detention. | “In these escapades Hobbs has been i systematically stealing wherever he went,” said Chief Detective T. Y. Hall. “The offences started in July at Wel--1 lington and continued at a sawmill at I Ngaroma, near Te Awamutu, a tobacco j farm at Umukuri, near Motueka, and at the Waitaki Boys’ High School, Oamaru." Restitution had been made of goods valued at £133, Mr. Hall said, but dealers who bought goods from Hobbs, not knowing that they had been stolen, had lost considerable sums of money, although some of the : owners had paid compensation. “A reformed criminal is better than I a permanently-occupied cell,” re- < marked Mr. J. G. Warrington, counsel I for Hobbs. “Although he has a bad J list, the defendant has a genuine regret for his offences. Since June j he has worked at two different places ' and has not committed any thefts. His I changed outlook is due to his wife, whom he recently married. Hobbs I knows that the public must be protected, and is prepared to make some attempt at restitution.” “ Restitution is out of the question.” said the magistrate. “ Someone usually suffers when thefts are committed, and it is often the owners of the stolen goods, which are either sold, used, or destroyed. It is time he learned his lesson.” , Illegal Lottery As a result of a complaint to the police made by a man who claimed he had won the lottery but had not received the prize—an electric clock — Ralph Porter, a barman at the European Hotel, admitted a charge of commencing a lottery on September 15, and was fined £lO with costs (10s). , Although the lottery was held in the bar of the European Hotel, there was nothing to show that it was with the knowledge of the licensee, said Chief Detective Hall. The defendant sold 50 tickets at 2s each and picked the winner from the ticket butts in a hat. The defendant claimed that the clock was given to him to raffle by a shopkeeper who was going out of business and who had trouble in selling his stock, said the chief detective, but the man denied giving any such instruction. The defendant had since given a similar clock to the man who made the complaint. Absent From Ship Harry Oscar Brown (Mr. W. McAlevey), a seaman from the Algonquin Park, was charged with being absent from the vessel without leave, from December 1, when she left Lyttelton. The Customs Department in Christchurch was preparing to charge the defendant, who was a native of the British West Indies, with being a prohibited immigrant, said Senior Sergeant J. H. Hogg. On his application the defendant was remanded in custody until December 15.