YOUNG GIRL’S LAPSE

Evening Star, Issue 21633, 31 January 1934, Page 5

YOUNG GIRL’S LAPSE

CHARGED WITH MISREPRESENTATION TWO YEARS IN BORSTAL In the Police Court to-day, before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., Violet May Franks was charged with obtaining goods to a value of £6l 8s from the D.I.C. by falsely representing that she was “ Miss Dawson,” of Christchurch, that she was staying at Leith House, and that she had an account with the D.I.C. in Christchurch. Mr C. J. L. White represented the accused. Detective-sergeant Doyle said that the accused arrived in Dunedin on January 15 from Christchurch. She. booked in at Leith House under the name of “Miss Dawson.” On January 20 she visited the D.1.C., and asked to see some frocks, and asked to take them to Leith House to show to a bliss Dawson, but her request was refused. She then left, and on the morning of January 22 sue telephoned the D.I.C. and asked for the head man in the office. She spoke to a Mr Ruffell, and told him that she wanted some frocks on approval, that she had an account with the D.I.C. at Christchurch, and that she had her purchases there booked on Mrs Butters’s account. Mr Doyle said that Mrs Butters was known to the D.1.C., and was ; a customer. The accused requested that several frocks be sent for hqr inspection, and seven frocks of a total value of £6l 8s were sent to Leith House on account of Miss Dawson. The accused selected one frock and wore it, and left Leith House the same evening without paying her board, tpking the other six frocks with her. She then wont to Albyn House and booked in there as “ Miss O’Brien.” She was located there on January 23,' when she denied she was bliss Dawson, or that she bad been staying previously at Leith House, but she admitted to Constable Le Sueur that she was Miss Dawson, and she was then wearing one of the frocks, but handed over the others. . Mr White, for the accused, said the girl’s story was a very sad one. She was twenty-one years of age, and her mother had died when she was a babv, the result being that she was broqght up in an orphanage. Her father died two or three years ago. The accused had been working in Christchurch for some years past, though recently she bad had only casual work; She came to Dunedin partly on a holiday and partly to obtain regular work. When she failed to get employment she foolishly committed the act winch was the subject of the charge. However, she said that she had asked for only two frocks, and that the firm had sent her seven from which to choose what she wanted. A Timaru lady, who knew the accused, gave her an excellent character, and said she was willing to take her in. The accused had _ never been in court before, and, in view of the offer from Timaru, counsel suggested that probation would meet the case. . The Magistrate said the girl s actions indicated that she was" not simple, but quite sophisticated. She was at an awkward age,, and if she were not disciplined or controlled she might pursue the course on which she had started. She would be sentenced to two years in the Borstal Institute at Point Halswell.