STOLE FOR SICK WIFE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1002, 19 June 1930, Page 1

STOLE FOR SICK WIFE

FUBLIC SERVANT CHARGED COURT’S LENIENT VIEW From Our Resident Reporter WELLINGTON, Today. Having embezzled money to pay the medical expenses of his wife while he was a servant of the Department of Justice at Raetihi, James Edwin Laing yesterday appeared before the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, in the Supreme Court on two charges of theft as a servant. He was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon. His Honour said that after having given very careful consideration to the case, and to the particulars on record before him, he had come to the conclusion that the court should not Impose a sentence of imprisonment, but should either grant probation or, as he proposed to do, order accused to come up for sentence if and when called upon.

The probation officer had reported that accused was entirely free from the usual vices which accompanied offences of the nature to which Laing had pleaded guilty. The state of his wife’s health must have driven accused almost insane, and certainly it had driven him to commit the offences. Although a breach of trust was a serious matter, said his Honour, he thought the interests of society would not suffer and the interests of justice would be served, particularly as restitution had been made, if Laing was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon at any time within 12 months. His Honour added that he did not think it necessary to give accused a warning,