THEFT OF BICYCLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1943, Page 4

THEFT OF BICYCLE

OFFENDER SENT TO GAOL COMMENT BY MAGISTRATE. SERIOUS WAVE OF DISHONESTY. “During twenty years’ work on the Bench I do not think that there has ever been such a period of dishonesty as regards money and property as in the last three years, particularly during the past 12 months,” said Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M., in the Masterton Magistrate’s Court this morning. The Magistrate made these observations in sentencing Kenneth Victor Melville, married, aged 27 years, a butcher, of Featherston, to two months’ imprisonment on a charge o£ having stolen a cycle valued at £l5 15s, the property of a Lower Hutt resident. Mr Lawry said that but for the submissions of counsel (Mr H. H. Daniell) he would have imposed a sentence of three months’ imprisonment. Senior-Sergeant C. Murphy said that defendant had stolen a ladies’ cycle from Lower Hutt. The cycle had been railed to Eketahuna under a false name and from Eketahuna it had been railed to Masterton, under another false name. The cycle had been advertised in the paper as being for sale at £l2 12s. Constable Berry had interviewed the defendant and later, under questioning by Constable A. W. Nalder, who knew the Upper Hutt district well, defendant said he had bought the cycle from a man in Upper Hutt. He said later he had bought it in Lower Hutt and then from a man at Mungaroa. Defendant, said the senior-sergeant, had consulted a solicitor and then admitted that he had stolen the cycle. The defendant said he had recently been discharged from the Army as Grade 111, on leave without pay, and that he had tried to sell the cycle to get money to enable his wife and child to shift from Featherston to Wellington. Defendant had had no previous convictions. Mr Daniell submitted that the Army had thrown Melville on the scrap heap without any pay or pension. The Rehabilitation Department had offered Melville a job in Featherston, but on account of a broken arch in one of his feet the work was unsuitable. Mr Daniell contended that the defendant was before the Court because of the way in which society had treated him. He should have received a pension. Mr Lawry said Melville would have to go to gaol. In Palmerston North last year I,ooo* cycles were taken without colour of right. Only 3 per cent of the offenders had been detected. Mr Lawry referred to the difficulty of detecting bicycle thieves or converters. In one week, in Palmerston North, a peak of 33 stolen cycles had been reached. Something had to be done. He had been sentencing offenders, on cycle conversion charges only, to periods of imprisonment for from seven to 14 months. The Magistrate added that from articles in the Press it Was apparent that he was not the only one who found cause to comment on the policy of dishonesty which was growing in the community. Other' men, occupying similar positions to his, had found reason to comment.