THEFTS FROM YACHTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 461, 17 September 1928, Page 1

THEFTS FROM YACHTS

GAOL WITH HARD LABOUR FOR TWO MEN JUDGE TAKES SERIOUS VIEW Sentence of 18 months’ imprisonment with hard labour was imposed by Mr. Justice Reed in the Supreme Court this morning on Huia Keith Allen, aged 22, and William Joseph Whyte, 36, who had pleaded guilty in the Police Court to 18 charges of theft from yachts and launches in St. Mary’s Bay at the end of last summer. Asked If he had anything to say, Whyte put in a statement which his Honour did not read to the Court. Allen asked verbally for a chance to go straight. At the time of his offence he was out of work and stole to get food, he said. Addressing Whyte, his Honour pointed out that he had had a long list of convictions for theft, beginning in 1910 and continuing in 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916 and 1920. He had served extended terms of imprisonment. Asked what he had been doing since 1920, Whyte said he had been following the sea and farming. He admitted deserting his wife. "I had every intention of declaring you an habitual criminal, in view of your record and would have done so had it not been for the fact that you have not been convicted for the past seven years,” said the judge. “It is possible that you will reform, but I warn you that if you are convicted again you will certainly be declared an habitual criminal. “These thefts from pleasure craft are very hard to detect and I take a serious view of the crime,” concluded his Honour.