STOLEN FROM SHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 215, 11 September 1925, Page 5

STOLEN FROM SHIPS.

RAIDS ON THE CARGO. WATERSIDERS IN TROUBLE. ~' A couple of lengths of blue serge, 1001b of butter, a lot of women's stockings, and cigarettes that had been stolen from various vessels in Auckland , lately, including the Matakana and the Kent, figured in charges heard at the Police Court this morning by Mr. J. W. Poynton, S.M. Amos George Taylor, aged 27, Henry Newell, aged 40, and . Harry Betts, aged 27, all natives of England, waterside workers, admitted having stolen a quantity of serge, stockings . and other articles. Detective McHugh described how lie had found some of the missing goods at Newell's house in Ponsonby, and later recovered a parcel of stockings and other things in the left-parcels-office of the Devonport Ferry Company, Taylor had admitted that he kept watch while the others went down the hold of the Matakana and got the stuff. The accused had given the police every assistance in clearing up the matter. The goods were part of some cargo for the South. The accused all pleaded guilty. Thomas Lanford, aged 56, a New Zealander, wa6 then charged with having received a piece of serge, knowing it to have been stolen. Chief Detective Cummings called evidence to show that accused had taken the serge to a' Victoria Street tailor, who refused to purchase it. Mr. Sullivan, who appeared for the defence, said the accused had not been before the Court for a very long while, and was trying to keep straight. In the present case he had been drinking, and yielded to temptation. The serge had been given him by one of tho men, whom he met in the street. He was a watersider, but did not work on the cargo ships. All the accused were remanded until Monday for sentence. A Good Haul. William Robert Waugh, aged 42, a New Zealander, admitted having stolen eight bowls, 1001b of butter, and a quantity of cigarettes, the property of the New Zealand Shipping Company. Detective McHugh said that, in consequence of something he discovered in connection with the theft of some cigarettes from the ■ steamer Kent, which was on fire recently in Auckland Harbour, he w-ent to the home of the accused, and j recovered the goods mentioned in the charge. Waugh admitted having stolen them from different ships upon which he worked. Chief Detective Cummings said that, as far as the police knew, the man's character had always been satisfactory previously. He was a married man with a family. The S.M. admitted Waugh to probation for two years, the goods, which ivc good condition when recovered, to ou returned to the owners.