RAN AWAY WITH RING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 167, 27 April 1928, Page 6

RAN AWAY WITH RING.

THIEF TO BE SENTENCED. ..Per Press Association.) ■■WELLINGTON, April 26. How a taxi driver who posed as a racehorse owner stole a single stone diamond ring valued at £750, the property of Messrs Jenness and Partridge, was* detailed in Court to-day, when Trevor Leonard Richard Cunningham, alias Reginald Smith, alias Jack Smith, aged 28, pleaded guilty. ' Mr Jenness said accused came into the shop about 3.30 p.m. on April 17, and asked to he allowed to look at a big diamond z-ing in the window, the ?rice of which was marked at £750. Witness took the ring from the window and handed it to accused, who said that he was Mr Lowry, the racehorse owner, of Hawke's Bay. Accused took the ring to the door, presumably to see it better, then ran away with it. Witness gave chase, but it was not till later in the afternoon that accused was found

Detective Jarrold stated that he found. Cunningham in the bar of a hotel in Willis Street. He was. showing the ring to someone. On seeing him, accused appeared to put the ring into one of his socks. When questioned, he denied having the ring, and, when witness told him that he was going to search him, he resisted, and objected to being removed from the bar.

"I found the ring in his sock on the right foot," said the detective, "and accused said, 'What a fool I was to put it in there. I suppose you will lay •me for this.' "

Cunningham was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. An order was made for the return of the ring to its owners.