THEFT AT A FIRE

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 16 November 1928, Page 10

THEFT AT A FIRE

BIUCiADESMAN'S OFFENCE The theft of a pair of field glasses while lie was attending a iire yesterday afternoon was admitted in the Magistrate's Court to-day by Charles Tombs, aged 27, a driver of a Wellington Fire Brigade engine. The glasses were the property of Joseph Muhlegger, and were valued at £3. Chief-Detective Ward stated that the accused and another fireman entered a room in the house to put waterproof sheets over the furniture. There were a pair of iield glasses and a valuable tiej piu in the room, and later when the occu- | pier of the room returned these articles were missing. The accused and the other, man submitted themselves to a search, which revealed nothing, the lield glasses being found later in v locker under the seat of the iire engine. The tie-pin had not been found. When questioned by detectives at the fire station in the evening the accused had admitted the theft of the field glasses. "Thefts! by firemen are serious," concluded the Chief Detective. "They have a right of entry into private dwellinghouses and are in a position of trust." On behalf of the accused, Mr. \V. 13. Leicester said that Tombs had been connected with the brigade on and off for the past six years.' The accused was a first offender, and had given way to sudden temptation, and as a result of the offence would lose his employment. Mr. E. Tago, S.M.: "The Court ia not able to look lightly on an offence of this sort." The accused was sentenced to one month's imprisonment.