Women Shoplifters Warned

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31551, 13 December 1967, Page 34

Women Shoplifters Warned

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Dec. 12.

Four housewives convicted in the Otahuhu Magistrate’s Court yesterday on shoplifting charges were warned by Mr M. L. Morgan, S.M., that he would have to consider prison sentences for future offences.

He said it was not unusual for him to deal with two or three cases of shoplifting every Monday.

All four defendants yesterday were fined and released because of their domestic circumstances, but the Magistrate said it was becoming increasingly difficult to take such circumstances into account

The offence, he added, was one to which shopkeepers were becoming increasingly subjected, and the court could not close its eyes to the way in which women, in particular, were offending. Elizabeth Poole, aged 62, pleaded guilty to stealing a packet of pastry and a packet of chicken breasts from a supermarket.

Her counsel (Mr J. C. Chamley) said she had placed the items in her shopping bag while watching a cooking demonstration in the store and had later forgotten to pay for them.

The Magistrate said he was loth to send a woman of 62 to prison, and he fined her $25.

Fay Pert, aged 27, pleaded guilty to taking from the same supermarket one chicken, 21b of mince, a bottle of detergent, a packet of peas, and a brunch coat. Senior Sergeant P. W. Wiseman said Pert’s husband had left her and she was supporting a small child and

suffering some financial difficulty. She was also fined $25.

Priscilla Violet Duggan, aged 43, who pleaded guilty to stealing two sheets of Christmas paper and a tin of coffee, said her two small children had distracted her attention while in the shop and she had forgotten to pay. She, too, was fined $25.

Thelma Elizabeth Rowe, aged 40, pleaded guilty to taking items worth $3.67 from a grocery store. She said she did not know why she did it, but was in financial difficulties, lived alone and supported five young children. She was fined $2O.