“HARD WORK”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 30, 28 April 1927, Page 7

“HARD WORK”

S.M.’S PRESCRIPTION THEFT CHARGES DISMISSED ‘‘You are only young yet and you have had very little experience. If you go out and do some hard work it will make you a much happier man,” said Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., in the Police Court this morning, when he dismissed two charges of theft—-one of stealing £2O in money and the other of a cheque of £9 13s 6d and £2 in cash —against Harold Joseph Neven, a Queenslander, aged 26. ‘‘The evidence against you on this occasion is entirely that of Mrs. Bruns. I haven’t sufficient in that to consider a conviction.” Neven, in the witness-box. admitted that he had done no work for four and a-half months, and during that time had boarded with Mrs. Bruns without paying her anything. She had given him money with which to buy cigarettes, he said. A charge of assaulting Mrs. Bruns was heard by Mr. Cutten yesterday afternoon and also dismissed. Mrs. Bruns gave evidence to the effect that Neven had been away from her house for a few days at the time the thefts were alleged to hav* taken place at East Tamaki, and also that she had seen Neven with a roll of notes. He denied both these statements. Senior-Detective Hammond told the court that Neven had been sentenced to four years’ reformative detention in 1919 for breaking and entering and theft, and later to another two years for the same offence. His list also included convictions for assault with intent to rob, and theft.