STOLE TO BUY GIFT

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 June 1936, Page 11

STOLE TO BUY GIFT

NAVAL CAREER RUINED LONDON, April 29. Because he was compelled to disappoint his little daughter on her birthday Chief Petty Officer (Writer) Arthur Stanley Bettison, 36, of Chica-go-avenue, Gillingham, ruined a 20 years’ honourable career in the Navy. He pleaded guilty at Marylebone yesterday to stealing articles worth £l5/3/2 from Messrs. Selfridge’s store, Oxford-street, W. The articles consisted of a dock, six pairs of socks, pair of shoes, picture, cap, two skirts, two balls, dress-ing-case, case of mugs, two dolls, three purses, card game, blouse, toy motor and two pairs of slippers. Lt.-Cmdr. Parrott stated that Bettison had the highest possible character. He had risen as high as he possibly could in a branch which entailed almost entirely positions of trust. Bettison, in evidence, declared that he came to London to meet his wife and buy his daughter a bicycle. . At Charing Cross he discovered that his purse was missing. “I was feeling murderous towards the thief who had taken my purse.” be added. “It prevented me from buying the present. 1 could not have been in my right mind, for 1 could not take then) home.”

Mr.- Ivan Snell, the magistrate, said Bettison had ruined a remarkable character by his act. He could not overlook it, aiid the sentence would be one month’s imprisonment.