A PROFESSIONAL THIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 171, 21 July 1924, Page 7

A PROFESSIONAL THIEF.

THEFTS FROM RAILWAY STATION. SENTENCED TO TWELVE MONTHS'. Described as a professional thief, John Graham (42), who pleaded guilty in the Police Court this morning to steal- 1 ing a gladstone bag and contents valued ■ ! at- £10, and a suitcase and contents! j valued at £10, was convicted and senrtcnced to'six months' imprisonment on each-charge, the sentences to be cumut lativc. He pleaded not guilty to the theft of a watch valued at £4, the property of »dmo person unknown. Detective Meiklejohn- stated in cvi- ' rl«T>re that i,he had been taken : from the railway station and were,' I iour.it under accused's bed id his room. ; I When accused was. being searched at the police station, a watch fell from the , i leg of his trousers. ■ When asked to ex-1 j plain how he became in possession of it I I-he-stated that he bought it from a man ' lin Queen Street for i-V. He also said that-he was a chef, that he had been unable to get employment, and had been , I compelled to sleep or. c in some toi-toi j |- bushes in the Domain. This statement j I.was subsequently found to be untrue. Chief Detective Cummings said that I recently there had been an epidemic of thefts of passengers' luggage from sleeping cars at the railway station. Graham was a professional thief and com- ■ menced his career of crime as far back . as 1909. He had been convicted of j (.heft on twelve previous occasions, and I had served several . terms of imprisonment. In addition to being sentenced to six ' months' on the two charges, the magis-. Km to,' Mr. y. K. Hunt, ordered him to ' undergo three years' reformative treat- i l-TEcnt. On thn'i-harge of theft of tie I watch. Graham was convicted and dis- ]• charged.