AUDACIOUS BURGLARS

Evening Star, Issue 18141, 4 December 1922, Page 5

AUDACIOUS BURGLARS

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALANDER BIG JEWEL ROBBERY. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, December 3. (Received! December 4, at 8.40 a.m.) Reginald Birt was sentenced at the Old Bailey to seven years’ imprisonment for tho robbery of jewellery, valued at £9,000, from Lady Croslield's house at Highgato. The prisoner is a well-educated Australian. He was bom in Melbourne. William John Clarke was sentenced' to eighteen months in connection with tho same robbery. He is a New Zealander. Mrs Birt and Airs Clarke and Arthur Sherwood, who were similarly charged, were acquitted. Tim robbery was effected in daylight byclimbing by means of a rope to an iron balustrade outside Lady Croslield’s bedroom. A few minutes afterwards they drove away in a motor car. There were many servants in the house at the time. Most of tho stolen jewellery was recovered.—A. and N.Z. Cable. (Received December 4, at 9.25 a.m.) Tho police regard Birt as one of the most reckless and audacious ‘burglars in tho world. Ho served several minor sentences in Australia. Then he went to South Africa, and was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment for in hotel robbery under the name of John Ridge. Ho next came to England, and was sentenced to five years /or housebreaking at Leicester, and then three years. He was released last August. A detective saw him and Clarke and two others in a street at Highgate a few hours before the Crosfield robbery, and he immediately connected him with it when it was reported. _ _ , Clarke has been, associating with thieves since he deserted from tho New Zealand Forces. Tire police declare that Clarke “spotted” for Birt, and that ho shadowed Lady Crosfiold for six weeks before tho burglary.—A. and l N.Z. Cable.