A SNEAK THIEF

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 132, 7 June 1930, Page 7

A SNEAK THIEF

ENGINEER FINED £3 >{ A man who belonged to highly respec* table people, but has given way to drink* was the. description given by Senior-Ser-geant Dempsey of Henry John Beck, an engineer, aged 49, in the Magistrate's Court to-day. Beck pleaded guilty to stealing" spanners valued at 12s, the property o£ Harry Manger. Senior-Sergeant Dempsey said that afc about 2.45 this morning the accused went along Taranaki street, where there is aa all-night garage. He was seen by a constable to go inside and look at a car, and when he came out he was accosted by the constable. The accused said that he had just gone in to look at his car, which was parked there, but when the constable calk ed the mechanic on duty the accuse*! he had wanted to have a talk with ±Jss mechanic. Still the constable was not satisfied, and he searched the accused, and found on him two sets of spanners stamped with the initials of a mechanic who | worked at the garage. The day before yes- | terday Beck had gone to former employers k. Wellington, and had been given £1 to go to Hamilton, where he said he had work. Instead he had spent the money on.' drink, and yesterday he had gone back to the place for more money, and on being refused had created a disturbance. "Apparently driuk bis trouble, but he is also a sneak-thief," concluded the seniorsergeant. _ Mr. T. 8., M'Neil, S.M., fined Beck £3< in default fourteen days' imprisonment.