YOUTH ROBS SHOP

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 62, 15 March 1933, Page 11

YOUTH ROBS SHOP

HIS SECOND ATTEMPT

Frustrated in one attempt four nights earlier, a seventeen-year-old youth, Harold Alexander Browne, was not to bo denied in his effort to break into the Paramount Lounge and Tearoom's in Courtenay Place, and shortly after midnight last Saturday ho was successful. He did not long enjoy the fruits of his crime, for at 11 o 'clock the same morning ho was interviewed by Detective Eitcliio and confessed his guilt. . When Browne appeared before Mr. E. Page, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court today he pleaded guilty to breaking and entering tho tearooms, occupied by William George Carpenter, and stealing sweets, cigarettes, and other goods of a total value of £3 Is lid; attempting to break and enter the same premises with intent to .commit theft; and stealing a brace and bit, valued at 4s, the property of Maurice William Prcnderville.

In evidence, Detective Eitchie said that when he saw the accused at his home at 159 Tory Street, he rnado a statement in which he said he had gone to tho shop about midnight the previous night with a small suitcase, a brace and bit, a screwdriver, and a pair of cotton sox to put over' his hands. He bored a hole in the door through which to put his hand to open the lock, and when he obtained entrance, filled the suitcase with goods, took thirteen coppers from a • money box, ,1 hat and a torch, and drank two bottles of mineral water. He then went home, explaining his possession of the goods by saying that he-had a job canvassing sweets. The accused also admitted attempting to break into the shop four nights earlier, but said that he had some difficulty and decided to wait until he could get some proper tools. Ho stole tho brace and bit from a man in the country.

Browne was. committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.