A PREVALENT OFFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 137, 7 December 1923, Page 8

A PREVALENT OFFENCE

THEFTS FROM SHIPS

LABOURER SENT TO GAOL.

Offences of a class described by' the pMice as being, very prevalent but hard to detect were admitted by a wharf labourer named Robert Bell, 32 years of age, who appeared before Mr. E. Page, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court to-day, on two charges of theft of ship's cargo, one of attempted theft, and a fourth count of receiving stolen. property. The total value of all the goods, which included men's shirts, boots, and a quantity of butter, was £10 12s. '

Chief-Detective Kemp explained' that the accused had been employed on the wharf for the past three years. The shirts had been taken from the Ngakuta, and from the particular case from which they were removed £37; worth of property was still missing. The butter had been stolen from the Errol, arid the accused stated that h e had bought the boots from a man on the wharf about eighteen months ago. Yesterday' Bell, when looking through one of the cases in ■No. 5 hold of the Ruahine, had been noticed by an officer, and his srrcst was Jater effected by Detectives Tricklebank and Revel!, who also recovered property in his house at Wadestown . Mr. C. A,. L. Treadwell pleaded' for leniency on .behalf of the accused, but the Magistrate remarked that he could not look lightly upon the offences. The accused was sentenced to three months' imprisonment on each of the four charges, the terms to be concurrent. ■