YOUNG CRIMINALS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 March 1922, Page 5

YOUNG CRIMINALS.

" PENALTY FOR THEIR ACTS. i IMPRISONMENT IMPOSED. ■r i ja. —— By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, Last Night. Several prisoners, all of them young, were sentenced at tlie Supreme Court to-day. Mr. Justice Herdman criticised gravely the crimes of a young woman, Annie McWalker, who pleaded guilty in court to three charges of forgery and false pretences. She falsified her employer’s books and obtained a sum of about £3OO, and also forged orders for a fair sum. His Honor said he must weigh the seriousness of these crimes, and also the fact that she made a false accusation against a police officer, though she subsequently withdrew it. He did not think it was a case for probation, as accused had systematically, deliberately and persistently helped herself to her employer’s property. She would be sentenced to one year’s reformative treatment, which His Honor reminded her was subject to the review of the Prisons Board.

A youth, Clifford Double, was sentenced to six months’ hard labor for breaking, entering and theft at Taumarunui. His Honor referred to the frtet that the prisoner had previously been sentenced for theft and false pretences and also for theft, and treated leniently. He w’as sentenced in the hope that the lad would come to his senses.

Six months’ imprisonment was imposed on Henry Samuel Barton for false pretences at Tauranga. He had two previous convictions. John Edward Calvert, aged 19, for attempted false pretences, received two years’ probation. A Maori named Hariuha Pei was sentenced to eighteen months’ gaol for the theft of a heifer. Several previous offences stood against him.