BEDROOMS RANSACKED

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 64, 9 December 1930, Page 13

BEDROOMS RANSACKED

Hotel’s Thieving Visitor IMPRISONMENT IMPOSED Dominion Special Service. Wanganui, December 8. Pleading guilty to the theft of a watch and chain valued at £7 and articles and money totalling £3/17/- at the Wanganui Police Court to-day, John Patou Hardy was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on the major charge, and convicted and discharged on the others. Detective Walsh said that accused arrived in Wanganui with another man and a woman, and booked at a hotel on November 29. He stole a bottle of whisky, the property of another man. He was also noticed prowling about, the hotel late at night, and spoken to about the matter, and the following morning valuables were stolen from rooms. The property was later recovered in the hotel. It was not the first appearance of accused before the court for theft, for since his discharge in 1928 he had been employed by the Railway Department at Wellington as a casual labourer, and had met with an accident, and was off work at the time of the thefts.

Mr. Tustin said that the thefts were the oucome of a drinking bout, and he was led into temptation by another man. He asked for leniency. The magistrate. Mr. 3. H. Salmon, S.M., said he had been convicted of theft on.no fewer than seven occasions. It was difficult to believe that these thefts from a hotel bedroom were conducted by a drunken man, as a certain amount of quiet was necessary. It was impossible to overlook the previous offences. Accused would be sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on the major charge, and convicted and discharged on the others.