ROYAL HOTEL ROBBERY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 36, 10 February 1917, Page 6

ROYAL HOTEL ROBBERY.

THE BUSSING RING FOUND* ES A«TICK OF SHAVING SOAP. (PRISONER GETS EIGHTEEN MONTHS When several bedrooms in the Royal Hotel -were burgled early last month, the property stolen consisted chiefly of a gold -watch and chain, about £60 cash and a five-atone diamond ring. A smart axreefc by Detective Hammond landed the thief, on thie point of escape to Australia, a few hours later, and with him -wore got the watch and chain and about £40 of the stolen cash, but the diamond ring was missing. It happened that the ring, though of considerable intrinsic value, wae most' dearly treasured by the owner for the reason that It had been his mother's. Every effort was made to tface it, for its worth (about £30)' encouraged, the belief that it Bad not 'been thrown away, but the search' was unavailing. The thief, a young man named Cyril George Pegg, had an Australian record for theft from hotels and boarding-houses, the type of theft that is known among detectives as " verandah-climbing." He stood trial before a Magistrate here for the Royal Hotel theft, and maintained a plea of innocence against evidence of the watch and ohain having been found concealed | in a bunk adjoining that in which he, as a ebip'e steward, bad occupied, and evidence that he had spent the night of the theft in the Royal Hotel. At the Supreme Court he clung etill to a slender chance that the fact that it was in another man's bunk in which the goods had been found might breed a strong enough collective suspicion in the minds of the jury against some other member j of the ship's crew to enable him to j clip out. It was a vain hope. He ! was convicted, and the only satisfaction that remained to him wae the mystery of the missing ring. In that he had nonplussed justice. When the conviction was Tecordei early in the week his Honor Mr. Justice Hosking referred to the fact that the ring had not been found. Then Pegg intimated that he knew where the ring was, and his Honor remanded the! prisoner for sentence till to-day "to give him a chance to find the ring." On his return to prison Pegg confessed to Detective Hammond that all through the proceedings he had had the ring in his possession. He instructed the detective to look up his effects, which had been care-i fully put by in the care of the prison ■officials against the time of his release, and to closely observe a stick of ehaving soap that was among his chattels. The detective got the stick of soap, which looked quite as innocent an the prisoner •had hitherto appeared, but when it was searched with a knife-blade the missr ing diamond ring was uncovered from its hiding-place. It had been skilfully buried in the partly-used eoap stick, the silvered paper, which is customarily wrapped about the shaving soap, had effectively covered all trace of the operation. The recovery of the ring not only completed the evidence against the convicted man, and ensured the return to its owner of a cherished keepsake, bui it has the still happier effect of removing the stigma of suspicion from any person other than accused. When the prisoner, who wae Tepre- J sented by Mr. Allan Moody, came up for sentence thie morning his counsel pointed out that he had been discharged from the Australian Expeditionary Force in December last, suffering from pneumonia, and that though his previous record was not a good one he had not aggravated the offence by committing perjury. His Honor stated that he would take into consideration the fact that the ring had been restored. Prisoner was liable to be declared an habitual criminal, but he would be given one more chance.

Prisoner was sentenced to eighteen months' hard labour.