§ LORD BALCARRES (Lancashire, Chorley)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been called to the cases of the two farmers named Thomas Leigh and John William Lee, who appeared before the Leigh Petty Sessional Court, on 7th March, on charges of having made false declarations in applying for dog exemptions, and were each fined 1s. and costs, amounting in one case to 12s. 6d. and in the other to 11s. 6d., and 1465 subsequently were informed by the clerk to the magistrates that they were entitled to and would receive exemptions in due course; and, as they have in fact received them, whether the conviction would be quashed and the amounts paid in respect of fines and costs be repaid.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) I have inquired into the circumstances of this case, and I find that the two farmers mentioned in the Question obtained the consent of the magistrates to the grant of exemptions from licence duty for dogs by means of declarations which were afterwards shown to be false. They were prosecuted and convicted of the offence of making false declarations. The case is certainly not one in which I should feel justified in advising any remission of the penalty.