IN AND OUT OF GAOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1042, 5 August 1930, Page 10

IN AND OUT OF GAOL

MAN GETS TWO YEARS’ HARD LABOUR theft and uttering Refraining from declaring Albert Joseph Vance Ryan an habitual criminal. as he had intended doing on account of the prisoner’s record, Mr. Justice Herdman, in the Supreme Court this morning, sentenced him to two years’ hard labour for the theft and uttering of a cheque. Mr. King, who appeared for the prisoner, stated that Ryan was now serving a sentence of six months’ imprisonment, to be followed by 12 months’ reformative detention for fraud. Counsel added that although Ryan had a long list, the last three offences had occurred within a short time, and the present crimes were part of this episode. The lapses were attributed by counsel to shellshock, which Ryan had suffered during the war, which caused him to commit petty offences when he took liquor. His Honour: It has been going on for a long time; he has been in and out of prison since 1919. He seems to be a half-witted sort of man. As soon as he comes out of gaol he starts obtaining money and goods by fraud. He is qualified to be declared a habitual criminal, and I think the best place for him is “inside.” “I think it is in his own interests, and those of society that he should he ‘declared,’ ” added his Honour, who said that he had come to this conclusion after discussion with the Probation Officer. 11l passing sentence, his Honour remarked that some features of Ryan’s case were peculiar. The prisoner had started committing offences in 1919, and from then on his record was one of false pretences chiefly and forgery. There was quite enough to declare him an habitual criminal, but he would not take that course on this occasion. The sentence is to run concurrently with the present term.