THEFTS FROM STATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 214, 8 September 1921, Page 11

THEFTS FROM STATIONS.

WOMAN SENT TO GAOL. TWELVE MONTHS' HARD LABOUR. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, this day. A woman, named Raeliacl Rosina Ki)ii-o. pleaded not guilty before Mr. .histici- Mringer, at the Hamilton Court yisu-rday, to charges of stealing on April-A'!, from the Hamilton station, a Ureso basket containing f35 and clothing lo :.he total value of £40, the property of Josey Hotham: and of stealing irom the l-'rankton station on May :2b a dross basket containing clothing of tlir value of £11. the property of Irene Walsh. Mr. H. T. Grtlies appeared for the frown, prisoner being unrepresented by r<.; .i-rl. Aγ ig. to Mr. Gillies, on April 23, Mi- .i;n left her dress basket beluM scat in the ladies' waitingroo .lie Hamilton station, while on Mi. .-.liss Walsh left her basket in tin , .Ling-room at the Frankton s-iai. Both ladies were only away a ,hu. i .. .ic, but when they returned the ba.-k.. .ere gone. When approached by a <. .. .able prisoner denied all knowledge i>l ihe goods, 'but later articles from both baskets were found in her room. She made no mention, until after tlir goods were discovered, of having bought or received the baskets from other people. In a subsequent written statement to the police she said she met a woman in the waiting-room of the I'rankton station, who offered her a dress basket containing certain articles of feminine wearing apparel for 15/. She gave the woman 5/ there, and then asked her to call at her address at i'ranklon for the remainder. The woman called on the following Friday and got another 5/, while witness next saw the, woman at the top of Collingwood Street and paid her the balance. She did not know the woman = who was drunk on the first occasion. Neither did she know anything about her. She did not inquire as to where the woman got the goods. The second dress basket was given Tier. Sergeant Edwards said he waited on accused on the day the dress basket was missed from Frankton. She denied that she had stolen the basket, and said she had brought her own from the station that day, as she had just returned from Te Aroha. Detective-Sergeant Sweeney gave evidence of recovering the stolen property from her room at the house where prisoner was working at Frankton. Prisoner claimed the whole of the property as her own. Certain of the stolen articles were recovered from prisoners daughter in Christchurch, who said her mother had sent them to her. Prisoner neither elected to give cvi-" dence nor to say anything to the jury. His Honor, in his summing up, said he would have liked prisoner to have been represented by counsel, but he doubted whether it would have been of much availA verdict of guilty was returned, and prisoner was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment with hard labour, liis Honor remarking that prisoner was already serving two years' reformative treatment, which apparently ■ had done her no good, while she had also been convicted of theft.