WHEN BURGLARS RETIRE

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1931, Page 3

WHEN BURGLARS RETIRE

INVESTMENTS IN “COMPANY.”

Something new in “crooks” has made his appearance in England, .rle is the man who takes to burglary as the easiest possible way of making money, with the intention of ‘ retiring” and “living honestly” when he has made sufficient. A number of these burglars have formed a special “company,” in which the proceeds of robberies can be invested, and a certain profit made on the money, while, possibly, the thiei is in prison. By the time he reaches 50 even a burglar in a small way, can retire and live comfortably. Recently a man was put in prison for a £5OO robbery. The proceeds of the crime were never found. When questioned he refused to say a woid. But in an unguarded moment he revealed to a man he thought was a friend that he had sold it for £3OO, and he had then “invested it in our company.” Growing more expansive, the burglar said: — “It is quite simple. You see, a number of us are working together. We turn whatever we steal into money, and pay it over to a secretary, who enters it into his book. The monej ’s then invested through a stockbroker. I am in prison for three months. W’hen I come out I shall look round for another ‘job.’ With average luck it will be a year or two before I am caught again, and by that lime I shall have put away a lot more money. “Now in 10 years, although my sentences will be increasing, 1 shall haveinvested through our ‘company’ a large sum, and certainly within 15 years I shall have enough on which to retire and live an honest life. I have no desire to he a criminal, but, with many others, I have round that 1 shah be able to retire young and live happily in comparative richness.” The head of this “company” is probably an otherwise respectable busi- • ness man, says a London newspaper, for there is nothing to connect him with crooked business. He obtains a fat commission on ali the transactions which he carries out.