“CONVERSION” OF CARS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21245, 16 October 1940, Page 6

“CONVERSION” OF CARS

So serious has the nuisance of “ converting ” motor-cars become that it is evident that authorities will have to take more severe measures to protect private property. Hamilton and many other towns are suffering from a positive epidemic of unlawful usage of cars. It is clear that in the minds of an irresponsible element in the community the clemency with which the law has treated offenders has created an entirely false impression. The gravity of the crime has not been brought home to those who are causing the mischief, and there seems to be no other way of lessening offences than by increasing the punishment to draw attention to the crime. Generally it may be argued that heavier penalties do not cure minds which are diseased and predisposed to crime, but in the case of car conversions every effort to appeal to the finer sense of those who commit the offences has failed to produce any result. The law has treated offenders so leniently that apparently the theft of a motorcar is not regarded as a serious matter. Until the correct impression has been made upon the public mind there seems to be no hope of any improvement in a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. Here is a plain mischief that can be committed pleasantly and with a good chance of escaping detection. If the public conscience is not awakened by an adequate emphasis being placed upon the crime it will go on; heavy loss will be suffered by owners of cars and the public conscience will become further dulled. If a man takes a horse and removes it a hundred miles he is promptly hounded down, charged with theft and punished very heavily. Yet if a man similarly removes a much more valuable car and abandons it at the other end of the country, wrecked or badly damaged, he is merely accused of unlawfully converting a car to his own use and probably escapes with a comparatively minor penalty. Further, during the process of conversion a powerful and dangerous machine may be on the high road in the hands of an unskilful or dangerous man. No convincing reason has been given why the law should differentiate between a man who steals a horse or a cow and him who steals a motor-car. Perhaps the only difference should be that the motor thief should suffer the heavier penalty. If a person wishes to borrow a car there is a legitimate way of going about it. There is never any doubt in a man’s mind whether he has a right to the use of another’s car.