CHARGE OF THEFT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 39, 25 November 1937, Page 6

CHARGE OF THEFT

PENALTY OF £5 IMPOSED. INCIDENT OUTSIDE PRISON. ' MAN WITH A TRUCK. (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. “We have every reason to believe that the sheaves were not the object of bis visit or the reason for the truck being there,” said DetectiveSergeant Holmes, in the Magistrate’s Court to-day, when Henry Herbert Pearce pleaded guilty to a. charge of stealing a number of oat-sheaves, valued at 2s 6d, the property of the Con-troller-General of Prisons. Pearce was fined £5, in default 30 days’ imprisonment, by Mr Levvy, S.M. Detective-Sergeant Holmes said that the farm manager at Paparua Prison saw the truck outside the prison grounds and his suspicions were aroused. Tile manager and a warder accosted Pearce, who said be bad got lost in the dark as he was not familiar with the neighbourhood. He admitted lie had stolen a number of sheaves.

“It is strange that he got lost, as lie is well known at the prison,” concluded the Detective-Sergeant. Asked if lie had anything to say, Pearce replied that if it had been anyone else nothing would have been said. In imposing sentence the Magistrate said that Pearce apparently knew the inside of the neighbourhood well.