GAOL FOR BOOK THIEVES

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 May 1935, Page 12

GAOL FOR BOOK THIEVES

OXFORD SHOP RAID.

LONDON, April 14.

What the Chief Constable described as “a determined and well-considered book thieving conspiracy” was described at Oxford yesterday when, three men were charged with stealing books from Messrs B. H. Blackwell, Ltd., and the University Press. The accused were George Wharton, 43, demonstrator, of Seymour-place, W.; Mornington Holbrook, 31, traveller, of Stonecross-road, Hatfield, and Clive Manning, 36, clerk, address, unknown. Wharton was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment, Holbrook to six months, and Manning to 12 months. "

The Chief Constable said that Holbrook hired a car in London and drove the other two men to Oxford. The three men then visited several bookshops, and although they were in the shops at the same time they treated each other as strangers. They made several small purchases of cheap books and then stole expensive ones. In the car were two trunks containing suitcases and a quantity of cord and labels.

Holbrook, added the Chief Constable, was deported from the United States in 1933 after conviction. When he left a house at Maida Vale an article was found in a periodical stating that. Holbrook w.as it member of the gang of criminals under the leadership of John Dillinger. Manning was a member of a gang of housebreakers who drove about the country in cars. ' \ Mr R. B. Cole, defending, said the article referred to in regard to Holbrook’s connection with Dillinger was fictitious.