CAR CONVERSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 November 1943, Page 4

CAR CONVERSION

AND BREAKING & ENTERING ADMITTED BY TWO YOUNG MEN. JUDGE GRANTS PROBATION ON CONDITIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “One wonders why young men like you, who are earning plenty of money, act as you did.” said Judge Smith to David Slasor, aged 21, and Trenthon Vivian Simmiss, aged 18, who pleaded guilty to the conversion of a car and a charge of breaking and entering. The depositions showed that they drove the car to Carterton, broke into a picture theatre and stole goods to the value of £5 12s. The judge said there seemed to be a lot of young men in a similar position —earning so much money that they appeared to have lost all sense of value. Mr W. E. Leicester, for Simmiss, said the main trouble was lack of parental control. His father was a major overseas and his mother wgs doing Govefnment work. Mr F. W. Ongley, for Slasor, said he had been lured away from farm work by high wages. He left home at the age of fifteen, had been shipwrecked and bombed and was upset as a result of his experiences. The judge said each youth had a previous conviction, but he would give them one more chance. A probation period was fixed at two years, under the usual conditions and payment of, £3 13s each to the owner of the car and £5 12s, the value of the goods taken and 18s 2d each towards the costs of the prosecution. Any earnings above £2 10s a week are to be banked by the probation officer, to be used as he thought fit for the furtherance of their (welfare.