WOMAN SUPER-SHOPLIFTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 143, 19 June 1922, Page 7

WOMAN SUPER-SHOPLIFTER.

Nt'lISE WHO MASQUEBADKII IN ITI'TY NAMES. I "In my -T, years' experience Hits is the worst c.ise c>r shoplifting I have ever heard." So «ilil Mr. Trance*, the Westminster magistrate, when ;i refined-looking woman. Margaret Hunter Ix'Wis, was charged with obtaining good< worth OKI lielnnsinx to Harrnds. .Mrs. Lewis, a certlHciiicl nnrs l .. was re ported in have committed frauds in ovef fifty different names. I "Vdii are a wicked and skilful icrlictrator nf frauds," said tin- magistrate io the I woman. "I thought, that t hail conic to the end of m.v experience In --lioi>llrtiit_. but ! 1 am afraid 1 have no:." j Mr. Philip Conway, for the prosecution. } saiil the c««e was probably one of the most remarkable and amazing ever brought before the court, 11. was without parallel. ' False pretences ran Ihrnusli all the woman's transactions, said Mr. t'onway. She even procured two receipt stamps almost Identical with those used at ILirrods. "The only difficulty was thai each department was numbered, and slip did not know the numbers of the departments. She cleverly super-iiiposed the date <if the receipt in the middle of the stamp. Only the woman herself could say where Ihe vast amount or stolen property had gone. Hoods found in Iter possession wore valued at about i:iOO. and -o great was tho variety of articles she obtained that shu practised her frauds on thirty-six different departments. Mrs. Lewis practised the device of taking a room at a hotel, such as the Ciidnjrnii and Ihe Kenllworth. She would stay overuiglit, . and next morning goods . would he sent to her addressed to the hotel, and to the'partionlar number of the room. "I did it or. one occasion, and saw- bow i easy it was." the woman was reported to have told the police, "and it has grown . upon mc io such an extent that I found it | utterly impossible to stop." ! The magistrate said he was sorry lhat ■ he could only give her an inadequate term .yf imprisonment. She would have to go to ; prison for twelve calendar months, with such, i hard labour as the authorities chose to give . ber.