TWELVE CHARGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue LXIX, 21 September 1938, Page 12

TWELVE CHARGES.

SHOPLIFTER SENTENCED.

PROBATION FOR WOMAN.

Remanded from Monday until to-day for sentence, having pleaded guilty to 12 charges of theft of goods of a total value of £43 from various city stores during the last 12 months, a married woman, Alice Mary Steane (39.), appeared before Mr. C. R. Orr Walker, S.M., in the Police Court this morning.

Her counsel, Mr. Aekins, said Steane's health had not been good. He produced a certificate from a doctor who had been attending her for four years. "I don't think thie is a case where imprisonment should be imposed, and I would ask that she might be given the benefit of probation," said Mr. Aekins.

Remarking that this was, prima facie, a case for a lengthy term of reformative detention, the magistrate added that there were certain circumstances which induced him to refrain from sending accused to prison. Accordingly he admitted her to probation for three years, and made it a condition that ehe is not to enter any city store during the period of probation. ° "A sad feature ie that her 12-year-old daughter accompanied her on some of her depredations," said the magistrate. "The child had sufficient intellect to comment on the matter."