TRIO OF THIEVES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 18, 16 October 1930, Page 13

TRIO OF THIEVES

Warehouses Burgled KNEW THE PREMISES Commited for Sentence Without work and money, three young men thought of ways and means. They were Thomas Neiling, aged 21, Ernest George Smiley, aged 24, and Charles Henry Bourne, aged 17J, labourers. Smiley, who had cleaned windows .in Wellington earlier, remembered the situation of the skylight in the warehouse of K. Alexander and Co. On the night of September 4 they sought out the warehouse and gained access by means of the skylight, although at the last minute Smiley became afraid and left the other two to their task. Neiling and Bourne went in and took goods of a total value of £25. Also they drank some whisky and wine which they found there. ' Sixteen nights later Smiley and Bourne alone decided to break into . another place, and again some memories from Smiley’s window-cleaning days were brought into use. The warehouse of H. W. Moss Ltd. was selected because Smiley knew of the position of the skylight there also. Effecting an entry, the men stole goods to the value of £l5/4/-. They also took two bottles of sherry from the place. Ten days afterward Detective Hayhurst interviewed Neiling at Cape Palliser and searched the tent he was occupying. The search brought to light some of the proceeds of the burglary in which Neiling had been concerned. Bourne and Smiley, who had gone to Wanganui, were arrested there by the local police, to whom they made statements. They were then brought to Wellington under escort. Some of the stolen property was recovered from .Wanganui and some from the house in Hessey Street, Wellington, where Smiley and Bourne had formerly stayed. The two burglaries were admitted by Smiley and Bourne and the one by Neiling when they appeared before Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday. They were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Picked on Constable It was a stroke of ill-luck that Lindsay Duguid, aged 43, should accost a certain man in Courtenay Place on Tuesday night and ask him for two shillings to pay for a bed. That, man happened to be a constable in plain clothes, who arrested Duguid for begging and fc<nd two shillings already in the beggar’s pockets. , “I was drunk and I plead guilty, said Duguid when.,he appeared in court yesterday charged with being idle and disorderly in that he was in Courtenay Place for the purjose of begging alms. As fourteen convictions for vagrancy stood against the name of accused he was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.

Sub-Inspector Lopdell said accused had been before the court a couple of weeks before for drunkenness, and on that occasion, as in the present instance, tickets were found on him indicating he had been asking for help from charitableminded citizens.

“I have been hard pushed,” said accused from the dock. “I have been under an operation and have to go back again to hospital.” He asked for a chance. The magistrate considered accused’s record was against him. Objection to Remand “I strongly object to this remand,” said James Russel] Hunter, aged 46, in the Police Court yesterday when the police applied for another remand. “This is the third occasion and no hearing of the case. If the evidence for the prosecution is strong enough to commit me to a judge and jury I would like it to come off this session.” Hunter was charged with being idle and disorderly and also with breaking and entering the warehouse of Alfred William Barber and stealing clothing valued at £95/10/-. The magistrate: What is the reason for this further remand? Sub-Inspector Ward: We had to make inquiries from the West Coast and witnesses have to be brought from there. The case will be heard at the next session.