THEFT OF WATCH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 132, 15 March 1940, Page 6

THEFT OF WATCH

YOUNG MAN’S LAPSE.

TINWALD BATHS INCIDENT

COMMENT BY 'MAGISTRATE. Severe comment on the tendency of an increase in the crime of theft in recent- times was made by Mr H Morgan' S.M., in the Ashburton Magistrate’s Court this morning when Ronald Claude Thomas (Mr V. W. Russell) was charged with having stolen a wristlet watch, the property of Keith Gordon Robertson, at Tjnwaid on February 25. He pleaded not guilty. Keith Gordon Robertson said . that he was at the Tiuwald baths and saw accused there: They spoke as they undressed. Witness placed his trousers on a nail and in a pocket placed his watch, in view of accused. When he returned to the dressing shed some time later he noticed the trousers were not on the nail and the watch was not in the pocket. He looked under the boards of the shed, but failed to locate the watch.

To Mr Russell: The pocket was of the fob type, open at the top. There was a coin in the pocket, but it had not dropped out. He was away from the shed for about three hours and did not know who might have gone into it in the meantime.

Constable T. W. Round, of Kaiapoi, and formerly of Ashburton, said ho interviewed accused who kept pulling his coat sleeve down to cover a watch on his wrist. Witness examined the watch and found it was Robertson’s. Accused said at first that the watch had been given to him by his mother on his 21st birthday. Later, he made a statement in which lie said, he did not see anyone with a watch in the dressing shed. He saw a watch lying on the floor under a seat and ho picked it up and took it away. Mr Russell said accused had not intended to steal the watch and had not had an opportunity to approach the police about his finding it. Counsel asked the Court to give accused .the benefit of the dopbt. , In the box, accused said lie was 22. He had looked for advertisements that the watch had been lost.

To Senior-Sergeant J., F. Cleary: When ho came back from Tinwald he was only a few chains from the police station, but he was busy talking to a friend and forgot the watch He did not ask anyone at the baths ij they had lost the watch. The Magistrate said lie was not satisfied with accused's conduct over the affair.

Accused was ordered to come up for sentence if callefl on in 12 months. “Some people these days cannot, without risk of thieves, leave tlieir cars in the streets, or goods in their cars,” said the Magistrate, when summing up the case. “Apparently some people couldn’t even go swimming without having their goods stolen.

“The crime of theft seems to be on the increase and it is a question Avhether 1 should not do something definite in this case toward stopping it. Accused did not do anything to try to find the owner of the watch, and Avhen seen by the constable he tried to lie his way out of the case.”