BEER ON THE WHARF

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 137, 11 June 1943, Page 3

BEER ON THE WHARF

TWO MONTHS FOR THEFT

Although he denied any intention of theft and any previous knowledge of the liquor involved, William Francis O'Keefe, labourer, aged 23, was convicted by Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday of stealing two cases of beer, valued at £14s, belonging to the United States Government, and was sentenced _to two months' imprisonment with nara labour. ■ . The evidence for the police was to the effect that O'Keefe, who had been engaged in the unloading of an overseas vessel, was found by a serviceman on patrol some time after he had ceased work last Sunday evening with the two cases of beer nearby. He was then near the high wire fence of the wharf enclosure. He asked the serviceman for "a break" and said that being found with the beer might cost him his job and six months' imprisonment. The serviceman handed him over to a sergeant of police, to whom O'Keefe told a story of having been invited by a sailor to have a drink from two cases of beer which he would find near the fence.' The accused, who was represented by Mr. R. R. Scott, gave evidence along the lines of his statement to the sergeant, and denied having had anything to do with the removal of the beer from the wharf shed, or subsequently. He said that it would not have been possible for him to pass the beer through the fence to anyone else. The Magistrate said that the defence was a variation of the usual excuse, where a man was found with stolen goods, that someone else had given them to him, and in the present case the accused was unable to identify the man he said was responsible. His admission to the serviceman was an indication that he realised he had been caught fairly and squarely. It was a case of pilfering, on the wharf.