THEFTS FROM HOSPITAL

Evening Star, Issue 25635, 8 November 1945, Page 6

THEFTS FROM HOSPITAL

CARPENTER GIVEN PROBATION The theft of a quantity of liquor and a radio set on two separate occasions from the house surgeons’ quarters at the Dunedin Public Hospital led to the appearance in the Police Court today of Robert Theodore Hunter Clark (24), a carpenter. The liquor he stole comprised two half-bottles of whisky, a bottle of sherry, a bottle of cherry brandy, and a bottle of Avocat, valued at £3 12s, the property of Dr P. A. Ongley. The radio belonged to Dr I. J. Leich, and was valued at £ls. Chief-detective' T. Y. Hall said that Clark, who had a knowledge of the lay-out of the house surgeons’ quarters through cleaning windows there, went to Dr Ongley’s room on August Si and stole the liquor from an unlocked cupboard. The goods had not been recovered, Clark saying that he had placed them in a street waste paper receptacle. The accused returned to the Hospital on October 26 and stole the radio, wliich he sold to a secondhand dealer for £7 10s, giving a false name and statihg he had purchased the radio in Sydney. Clark had served twtt year's overseas in the Navy, and was 'in receipt of a weekly- pension of 24s and an economic pension of 355. Mr A. G. Neill, counsel for Claris:, said he had an honourable discharge from the Nayy, but it appeared he had made a bad start since his return to civilian life. In view of the. fact that the accused was to be married .within the next three weeks, Mr Neill applied for the suppression of publication of the name. The accused could consider himself fortunate dn the way the court intended to deal with him, said Mr JR. Bartholomew, S.M., who said he hoped that Clark’s appearance for theft would be a lesson to him. The accused was admitted to probation for a year, and he was "ordered to make restitution of £3 12s to Dr Ongley and £7 10s to the dealer to whom he sold the radio.