£5000 IN FIVE YEARS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 245, 29 July 1936, Page 8

£SOOO IN FIVE YEARS.

A SUCCESSFUL BEGGAR. A one-legged shoemaker who was said to have collected about £SOOO in five years by asking people to subscribe the' cost of an artificial limb, was sentenced at London Sessions to 21 months’ imprisonment, says the “Daily Telegraph.” The man was Edward Lawrence, aged 25, a. native of South Wales, who was found guilty of attempted housebreaking. Mr Laurence Vine, prosecuting, said that a maid in a house i,n Platts Lane, Hampstead, heard a key being tried in the lock and notified tbe police. Officers went to the lane and saw Lawrence visit ,a. number of houses. He told them that lie was collecting for an artificial leg. Lawrence, in the witness-box, was questioned, about a document found in his possession. It contained notes on various houses, stating that they bad jewellery in them, the number of maids and their habits, and the opportunities of getting into the houses. One extract read: “Being a lady-in-waiting, she should have some expensive jewellery. As there are only two maids, find what one is cut, and get one in the kitchen.” Lawrence said that be made out the document ten months ago, and had abandoned tbe idea entirely. Detective-Sergeant V heeler stated that Lawrence’s real name was Reginald ■•’Snary, and that be had been convicted on eight- previous occasions. He was sentenced to 18 months’ hard labour last year.

Referring to the document, the officer said: “Figures on the paper indicate that lie has been earning .by this means (collecting money to buy an artificial leg) something in the neighbourhood ol £IOOO a year for five years.” The officer said that Lawrence bad collected 6s in half an hoar on the day lie was arrested.