CARGO PILFERING.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 256, 29 October 1929, Page 5

CARGO PILFERING.

QUARTERMASTER'S LAPSE,

SAID IT WAS KLEPTOMANIA.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SUVA, October 23,

Yesterday forenoon as the steamer Ruapehu was discharging whisky in slings, a slingful was temporarily lowered to the deck pending being slung on to the wharf. As the sling lay there for a moment, a quartermaster stepped forward, lifted a case out of the sling and disappeared with it below. The native winchman a little later reported the incident to the Customs officer on the wharf. After a long crew parade the Customs officers searched the ship, and in his cabin found the man and a semiconcealed locker holding the missing bottles. The man confessed that he had taken the case and broken it in his cabin, throwing the wood overboard through the port. To-day Thomas Bryant was before the Police Court. He said it must have been kleptomania. His skipper said the man had a clean record, and because of this the magistrate let him off with a fine of £6, the value of the case. The offence was a serious one, said the Bench, and would be seriously punished with gaol, but owing to the accused's record he would let him off as stated. The liquor was to be returned to the ship.