WAREHOUSE THEFT

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 294, 7 September 1932, Page 11

WAREHOUSE THEFT

Three Chests of Tea Stolen BROTHERS PLEAD GUILTY The story of how three chests of tea, valued at £lO, came to be stolen from the warehouse of Messrs. Burch and Co., Ltd., on August 12 last, was related to Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Police Court yesterday, when John Robert Owens, a driver, aged 31, pleaded guilty to stealing the tea, and his brother, Walter Cadwalader Owens, a driver, aged 32, admitted having received it from his brother, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained. The magistrate admitted the brothers to probation for two years, and ordered them to make restitution of £2/6/8 each. Detective-Sergeant Revell said that John Owens, who bad previously worked for Messrs. Burch and Co., went into the warehouse about four o'clock in the afternoon, and concealed himself. When the staff had gone, he obtained a lorry and left with the three cases of tea. On August 15 he approached his brother Walter, and suggested that he should endeavour to sell the tea. Walter Owens succeeded in selling the tea to a suburban grocer, who paid him £6/10/- for the three chests, John retaining £5 of the money received and Walter £l/10/-. When taxed with the theft, the brothers were quite frank about it, and two of the chests of tea had been returned to Burch and Co. The grocer was selling the third chest at 1/8 a pound. Both accused were married men. “I was just hard up, and had to do something for my wife and children,” said Walter Owens, when asked if he had anything to say.