GAOL FOR BANKRUPT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 270, 4 February 1928, Page 12

GAOL FOR BANKRUPT

PROTECTION OF COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY FOR DEBT (From Our Own Correspondentj HAMILTON, To-day. “As 1 have always understood it, the bankruptcy law is intended primarily for the protection of unfortunate traders, and secondly, for the protection of the commercial community. The penal clauses of the Act are to prevent persons from misrepresenting their positions to traders.” QUCH was the comment of Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., when the proceedings against Samuel Mallett, aged 55, confectioner, of Taumarunui, were concluded yesterday afternoon. People had to be prevented from buying goods without reasonable prospects of paying, and living on the proceeds,, added Mr. Wilson, who said he was bound to take that into consideration. The primary duty of the Court's jurisdiction was to protect the community. This was not the case of a muddling man who got into trouble through mismanagement. Defendant had been bankrupt before, and knew the serious consequences which might follow those proceedings, yet he had not kept proper records of his transaction. When his business was falling away he took no steps to find out whether he was solvent and had gone on giving orders to merchants. Obviously he knew the consequences of bankruptcy when he had his hooks written up just prior to his bankruptcy. * “It would be ridiculous for me to inflict a fine in this case. He is fiftyfive years of age and does not need probation. The best course is to impose a short sentence. He is sentenced to a month’s imprisonment on each of the three charges, the terms to be concurrent,” added the Magistrate. The charges against Mallett were that he failed to keep proper books and contracted two debts when he had no reasonable prospects of paying them.