Women With Incomes Double Shop Thieving

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13235, 10 January 1941, Page 6

Women With Incomes Double Shop Thieving

Sydney. Dec. 22. Thieving in Sydney stores during the present Christmas season lias been more than double that of any previous year, and 98 per cent, of the adult thieves have been women in receipt of incomes ranging from £ 5 to £ 25 a week. A remarkable series of captures, made by staff detectives, included a woman who was using her four-year-okl granddaughter to carry out thefts. Evidence was given that the child systematically removed articles from the counters and moved off into the crowd. Her grandmother would follow and place the stolen goods in her suitcase. The woman, Mrs Kathleen Leo, 60 of Palmer-street. Rozelle. was fined £ 2 on one charge and sentenced to 21 days’ gaol on another. Well-groomed, and stated to have had £l7 10s in her possession when caught shop-lifting, Edna Chardley, 80, of Springfleld-avenue, King’s Cross, was sentenced’to two months’ gaol, sentence being suspended for 16 months.

Also well dressed, and with £lO 14s in her handbag when caught, Margaret Jamieson, 52. of Stationstreet, Newtown, received a similar : sentence. Many Cases Others dealt with and convicted on Thursday and Friday at Central Police Court were; Levina Thompson, 36, Manna-road Earlwood, two months, sentence suspended: Alice Cusack. 33. Wilga-road, Bondi, two months', sentence suspended; Francis Edward Gallagher, Kentstreet, city, 14 days; Gloria Dorothy Holmes, 19, Nor-ton-street, Leichhardt, two months, sentence suspended; Mary Shepherd, 26, New South Head-road, Edgecliff, two months, sentence suspended: Kathleen O’Brien, 22. Forest-road, Hurstville, two months, sentence suspended: . Edith Pearce, 60, Edward-street, North Sydney, two months, sentence suspended. Other cases were remanded. Officials stated that thieving from shops had reached startling proportions. “There has been a 20 per cent, increase in juvenile shop thieving,” said Det.-Sgt. Sabine. “Since the beginning of December more than 40 women shop thieves have been convicted at Central Police Court each week. Not all those apprehended are handed over to the police. -■ “So far, I have not encountered even one case in which the women were driven to thieving by necessity. “Not one of those who went through my hands was poorly dressed. They were all stylishly frocked

CHILD, 4, USED BY GRANDMOTHER

“In only one case did the women have less than £ 5 a week income. Several have more than £2O, and one receives £ 25 a week.’’ This was confirmed by senior staff detectives at two big department stores. “We have recorded 25 cases of adult shoplifters in nine days. That is a record for our store,’’ said one detective. “In every case, the women had no need to steal.” Sign Confessions He said that shoplifters, in certain circumstances, Avere given the option of signing a confession of their guilt, instead of being handed over to the police.

“In view of the enormous increase in pilfering this Christmas, I w r ould not be surprised, however, if this policy of leniency is scrapped,” he said.

“Even children have been much worse this year.

“Many have been hanging about the toy departments unattended until they have become a bugbear. “Previously, in one year, not more than eight or nine would be caught stealing, yet I have caught three times as many as that in one week lately.”

Shop thieves are now dealt with in open court. Usually, first offenders are sentenced to two or three months, sentence being suspended for IS months or two years. A gaol term invariably follows a second conviction.