PENSIONER ROBBED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 150, 22 December 1938, Page 6

PENSIONER ROBBED

A''REFINED PICKPOCKET"

"This class of offence is really a more refined pickpocketing; enticing a iman.'into a side street and, when apparently indulging in horseplay, and under cover of horseplay. going through his pocketr," said Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., in the Magistrate's poiirt today when entering a conviction against Eric John Jones, a labourer and hawker, aged 38. "It is a very serious matter, and one i cannot pass over leniently." Jones, who pleaded guilty to stealing "from the person of D. L. B. Ross •a tobacco tin containing two £1 notes, an art union ticket, and a war discharge certificate, of a total value of £2 ls> was sentenced to three months', imprisonment with hard labour. A pensioner, aged 65, Ross Stated that he was. in. Mercer Street at about 9 p.m. yesterday when a man came xip to him and asked him if he were Mr. Sullivan. When the man, found oiit" that, that was not his name he apologised and invited witness to have a. drink They were joined by two others, and while they1 were having a drink, the men started showing him wrestling holds After this : witness, tapped his breast pocket and found that the tin containing his money was gone He got away and met a policeman, and they managed to catch one of the men with the tin on him. It was while they were showing him the'holds that the tin was taken. At no time while he was being shown the holds was he lying .down, said witness to Sub-Inspector J. A. Dempsey, who prosecuted. : , The Magistrate: We will have to call this one; the, grab instead of the crab.; : Two or three of the men were showing him the holds at once, said witfness. The accused was. one ot them. He had about 18s in his trouser pocket,. and that was taken too. . -When; he left,, the men, continued witness, one'",of them.said, "Now we?re in for it!" It was" not the accused who j apprba<aied'hrm in the ,-street, but the accused was actually' showing' him the wrestling holds.; ' . . . CONSTABLE'S CHASE. Constable "S. Hawkless described How, after receiving" b coinplaint from Ross, he saw the men drinking beer on the corner of St. Hill Street and; Manners Street. He walked up towards " the' men. and as soon as they noticed "him they walked' on to Manners Street. On getting to Manners Street he saw, two of the men walking slowly down the street towards Cuba Street, and the accused- was about six yards in front of these men and running. He turned "into ,Farish Street, and witness gave chase, and caught him on the corner of Farish and Wakefield Streets. When asked why he was in such a hurry, the accused said, "I am just going to get a taxi to take my friends home." . ' l He took the man to Ross, who identified him, sai^ witness, and the accused put his hand in his pocket and took out a tin, saying, * "That is my tobacco.'" The tin was that produced, containing the pound notes. Witness asked the accused how he came to be in possession of the tin, and he said that when they were in th . doorway drinking Ross offered him a cigarette and he took the tin, thinking it was tobacco. Sub-Inspector Dempsey produced a list of the accused's previous convictions.

On. his own behalf Jones said that he was drinking fairly heavily somewhere before 9 o'clock, and could not say very much about it. He asked for a further chance.