THEFT ADMITTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 205, 31 August 1933, Page 10

THEFT ADMITTED.

HANDBAG AND PARCEL TAKEN. MISSED FROM RAILWAY TRAIN. ( I l The theft of a handbag containing j personal effects and a bundle of plants j from a railway carriage at Mercer, valued at £3 5/. the property of R. J. Glasgow, of Onewhero. was admitted by John Thomas Head and Francis Walsh in the Pukekohe Police Court yesterday, before Mr. F. H. Levien, S.M. R. J. Glasgow said he boarded a train at Pokeno at 0 p.m. on August 21 to travel to Hamilton. He and a com-, panion left the carriage temporarily at; Mercer. When the train arrived at To j Kauwhata lie found that his handbag j and a parcel of native shrubs, wliicli he < had placed ri the carriage rack, had disappeared. Two men who had been occupying the same carriage had vacated it. To Mr. E. G. Foster: The men ap-j peared to be half-iiito.yicated. Constable H. J. Olsen said lie found i the two men in a billiard room at Mer-1 cor, and he waited for them to go liome.! Walsh had the bag in liis possession,! the plants being found thrown over a bank near the Mercer railway station. Each accused Warned the other for the theft. Sergeant J. T. Cowan said both accused had been convicted previously. Counsel described accuseds' action as | a drunken prank, and suggested that j they be prohibited. Both had been in custody for eight days. Mr. Levien remarked that the accused evidently did not realise their full responsibility, as they had been hanging about Mercer waiting to be picked up. He warned them of the consequences if they commenced on another criminal career. Each was convicted and prohibited for 12 months, and ordered to pay 8/3 witnesses' expenses.