STOLEN COLLECTION BOX

Evening Star, Issue 23907, 10 June 1941, Page 4

STOLEN COLLECTION BOX

A MEAN RUSE (P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 10. The flimsiness of some of the collection boxes used for street collections was criticised by the magistrate and the police in the Police Court when John Paga Jones (20), a labourer, pleaded guilty to the theft of a collection box and its contents, amounting to £2 9s, the property of the Fighting Forces Fund. Detective-sergeant Nalder said Jones offered to accompany an authorised woman collector into hotel bars to solicit donations, stating that he had returned from active service in Egypt. Later in the day Jones told the collector that there was a man in the hotel bar who wished to give a 10s not, but did not like giving to a woman collector. Jones took the box, but did not return. He subsequently admitted to the detective that ho had opened the box and extracted its contents.

The detective demonstrated to the court how easily coins could be extracted from the flimsy collection box. He said Jones was placed on probation last year on a charge of fraud. The magistrate, Mr Hunt, sentenced him to three months’ imprisonment, and said collection boxes should be so constructed that it would be impossible to extract money until they were officially opened.