SHOPLIFTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 206, 1 September 1933, Page 7

SHOPLIFTING.

WIDOW FINED £15. PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS. While admitting two charges of stealing two hats worth 13/10 from a Karangahape Road store, and six pairs of silk hose, valued at £3 3/, from the Farmers' Trading Company on August 25, a widow, Charlotte Taylor, aged 46, who came before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., in the Police Court today, denied another charge of stealing a coat valued at £2 17/6. Mr. Noble appeared for accused, and Detective-Sergeant O'Sullivan prosecuted. Evidence was given by a shop assistant that she saw accused and another woman in the Farmers' Trading Company store at 3.15 p.m. last Friday. Accused was detained, and found to be in possession of the articles mentioned in charges. Her companion hurriedly left the shop.. Accused denied stealing the coat. Detective Allsopp said he interviewed Mrs. Taylor, who admitted stealing the hats and silk hose, but denied stealing the ovei-coat. She said her companion stole the coat. The woman who was with accused, in evidence, denied that she ran away from the shop. She said she had ah appointment with a solicitor. Cross-exainined by Mr. Noble, she hotly denied that she stole the coat. Mrs. Taylor also • gave evidence, admitting two charges of theft, but saying her companion, the previous witness, got the coat. Witness would not say the other woman stole it, or paid for it. Under cross-examination by DetectiveSergeant O'Sullivan, accused admitted that she had been convicted twice for shoplifting in 1927, and she had been convicted also in 1924 for an offence. Detective-Sergeant O'Sullivan: Some time ago I called at your house with a search warrant, and you had a lot of clothes there which had been worn a little and could not be identified?—l don't think I had a lot. How have you been living?—On charitable aid. Don't you exist by systematic shoplifting?— No. Mr. Noble said accused had kept out of trouble for some years. It may have been that she yielded to temptation. Counsel hoped that it would not be necessary to send her to gaol. "She has been there before," said the magistrate. "I am always reluctant to send a woman to gaol, but she cannot pay a fine, and I cannot overlook these matters." Accused said she had a friend who would pay the fine for her. On each of the three charges, accused was fined £5, or one month's imprisonment.