APPEALS FAIL

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

APPEALS FAIL

SENTENCES OF FARMERS THEFTS FROM RAILWAYS In a reserved judgment issued yes-, terday in. the Supreme Court in Dunedin, Mr Justice Kennedy dismissed the appeals of two farmers, Cecil Robert Coutts, aged 36, and Hector William McLeod, aged 36, who had been sentenced to three months’ imprisonment with hard labour by Mr J. D. Willis, S.M., at Palmerston on November 11. Appellants, who were represented by Mr J. P, Ward, claimed that the sentences were excessively severe. Dealing with Coutts, the, judgment stated that he and the other accused, McLeod, took a lorry from Palmerston to Bushey siding, and' there stole two loads of sleepers, one load being taken to McLeod’s farm and the other to Coutts’s. “It was said he was a first offender, but the matter does not stand there. It was only one of a series of thefts.” The judgment mentioned that Coutts had also pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing a tarpaulin from the Palmerston goods shed, and other articles of a total value of £2B 12s 6d The tarpaulin had been found in Couts’s woolshed at Palmerston. Reference was also made to the theft of rails. “These had been the subject of a transaction in which Coutts had made some profit. The offences do not stand alone, but it was shown that Coutts had been consistently stealing from the Railways Department over a period. The evidence shows that the offences are prevalent and I think the penalty imposed, three months’ imprisonment with hard labour was, in the circumstances, not excessive but warranted.” After dealing with the sentence imposed on McLeod for the joint of sleepers, the judgment added that there had been a theft of tarpaulins from the Palmerston railway yards, and five lengths of rail from Bushey siding. His Honor held that in McLeod’s case, “ the learned magistrate was warranted in imposing a deterrent sentence,” and that the sentence was not excessive. Each appellant was ordered to pay £3 3s costs of the appeal. Mr J. B. Deaker appeared for the Crown.