JEWEL ROBBERY IN LONDON.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17629, 5 December 1922, Page 7

JEWEL ROBBERY IN LONDON.

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALANDER SENTENCED. (By Cable—Press Association—'Copyright.) (Australian and N.Z. Ckble Association.) LONDON, December 3. Reginald Birt was sentenced at the Old Bailey to seven years' imprisonment for robbery of jewellery valued at £9OOO from Lady Crosfield's house in High gate, North London. He is a well educated Australian, having been born in Melbourne. William John Clark, who was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment in connexion with the same robbery, is a New Zealander. Mrs Birt, Mrs Clark, and Arthur Sherwood were similarly charged, but were acquitted. The robbery was effected in daylight by climbing by means of a rope to an iron balustrado outside Lady Crosfield's bedroom. A few minutes later they drove away in a motor-car. There were many servants in the houso at the time. Most of the stolen jewellery was recovered. The police regard Birt as one of t.ho most reckless and audacious burglars in the world. He served several minor sentences in Australia, and went to South Africa, where he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for an hotel robbery. Under the name of John Bridge, he came to England, and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for house-breaking at Leicester, and then to three years. He was released last August.

Detectives casually saw Birt, Clark, and two others in a street in llighgato for a few hours before tho L'rosfield robbery, and immediately connected them with it when it was reported. Clark had been associating with thieves since deserting from tho Ivew Zealand Forces. The police declare that Clark spotted for Birt, and shadowed Sir Arthur Crosfieid for six weeks before the burglary.