400 MISSING BLOUSES

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 95, 17 January 1924, Page 8

400 MISSING BLOUSES

SEQUEL TO CUBA STREET BURGLARY A middle-aged labourer named Walter Leonard Hammingtofi appeared before Mr. W. G. Riddell, &.M., m the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of breaking and entering the establishment of L. Evans and Co , drapers,’Cuba Street, on June 26 last, and stealing therefrom silk and crepe de chine blouses and junipers and rolls of silk to the total value of £442 14s Cliief-Deteetive Kemp prosecuted, and Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell represented accused. „ Joseph Llewellyn Evans, manager for L. Evans and Company, described the means by which the premises had been entered. Witness said he had not the slightest doubt about the identity of the blouses produced, which constituted the recovered portion of over 400 missing silk and crepe de chine blouses. The value of the goods recovered was £75, while the missing property totalled approximately £442. Evidence of identification was given also by Ellen Levi,, forewoman for Evans and Co., Charles Stanley Winny, warehouseman, and Joseph Isaac Goldsmith, soft goods manufacturer. Jessie Burnham, sister-in-law of accused, told the Court that about three and a half months ago she discovered a tin box inside the front door of her house at 287 Willis Street The owner turned out to be accused, but he had offered no explanation as to how he came by them. The contents of the trunk, blouses, were subsequently removed. Witness had purchased three of them for 7s. 6d. each. An examination of Evans and Co. s premises on the day following the burgla-rly was described by Detective McLennan, who said he had found fresh boot marks on the bricks near a lean-to, suggesting the theory that someone had scaled the wall from accused’s back yard into the premises. Marks were also located on the iron fence. Questioned the same morning. Hammington stated that he had heard no noise during the neither had he seen any person about the place. Witness later visited .the residence of James Patterson in Vivian Street, and there he recovered the 88 blouses produced. Three blouses were received also from the previous witness. In a. subsequent statement Hammington declared that he had. received a quantity of blouses in a tin trunk from a man named Bryson at Auckland. Ho had been unable to. dispose of them, and had arranged with Patterson to sell some for him. He had given Patterson about 82 blouses, he had sold three to Mrs. Burnham, and had burnt five. The goods were received bv him sometime in July, as far as he could recollect. Accused pleaded not guilty, reserved his defence, and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail (£200) was renewed. A similar plea was entered by James Patterson (represented bv Mr. C. B. O’Donnell) who was charged with “receiving” from Hammington £BB worth of the property alleged to have been stolen. . In evidence Detective McLennan said that on the occasion of the first interview accused had stated that a. man had left the blouses at his shop, but later admitted that Hammington had brought them along. . Accused was sent forward for trial, bail being fixed at £l5O.