BRAZEN THIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

BRAZEN THIEF

GIRL WHO ROBBED HOSPITAL Remarkable details of the career of a Yorkshire girl in London were given before Mr. Bernard Campion, K.C., the magistrate at Westminster, when Nora Smith, aged 22, a book-keeper, of Pimlico, pleaded guilty to stealing £IOO from the National Hospital for Dentures, where she had been employed. Detective-Sergeant Allen said that Smith was placed on probation at Bromley in October for stealing clothing from. a hospital where she was a nurse. Implicit trust was placed in her at the Hospital for Dentures. She began dufty at 27s 6d a week, but her work proved so good that after a fortnight she was offered an increase. She replied, "As this hospital is maintained by voluntary contributions I should not think of taking anything extra." In consequence the fullest confidence was placed in her. Although she had said she was paying 14s'6d a week rent for the two rooms she occupied, she was paying 30s, and kept a servant. Telling her friends that she was a private secretary and also had an income of her own, she invited them to cocktail parties at her rooms.

Mr. Campion: Is this what one might call swollen head, wanting to show off and so on ? It is a well-known disease among some people, but "showing off" with £IOO stolen from a charitable institution is a very wicked thing. Addressing Smith, Mr. Campion said: J will not put you on probation again; it would be making a mockery of the Act. You will go to prison for five months. Smith walked out of the dock smiling.