MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 131, 30 November 1933, Page 3

MAGISTRATE'S COURT

Mr. W. "$. Stihvell, S.M., ■■dealt with cases in the Magistrate's Court today. A plea o£ guilty was entered by John William Leslie, aged 71, a seaman and paper seller, to a charge of stealing 14 newspapers,- valued at 2s 4d, the property of the "Dominion" newspaper. SeniorSergeant Dempsey said that, because of the disappearance of-papers from doorways a watch was kept, and early this morning the defendant was seen to take a parcel ot 14 newspapers. Twice before he had been charged with the theft of ptpers. The Magistrate said he was disinclined to send a man of 71 to gaol, and he imposed a fine of £5, in default one month s imprisonment. It would be Leslie s last chance, he said. ' , For the theft of an overcoat and a pair of hair brushes valued at £4 2s 6d, the property of R. Judge, William John Parker, aged 64, a saddler, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. The police evidence was to the effect that the articles were missed from a room in a hotel, and later a detective interviewed the accused, who admitted selling the coat to a secondhand dealer and told the detective where the brushes were. The defence was Parker had bought the articles from anbther man at. a time when he had been drinking. "I've only been a victim of circumstance, said Parker when confronted by his list of. 57 previous convictions for- theft, vagrancy, and attempted murder. "I don t' believe the accused's story," said the Magistrate.