GOLD FROM PENS

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1936, Page 14

GOLD FROM PENS

SMELTED BY THIEF

SYDNEY. July 3

A thief’s method of treating fountain pens and propelling pencils, of which he had stolen more than 1000, to obtain the gold from them, was described by the police at the Quarter Sessions yesterday. Edward Kelly, .33, an iron worker, was found guilty of having broken, into the warehouse of the Conklin Pen Co. Ltd., in Clarence-street, Sydney, on May 24, and stolen 600 pencils and 4,32 pens. Detective Newton, of Phillip-Street Police, said that Kelly when he was arrested was living in a room in Bathurst-street. A three-quarter-inch hose pipe had been connected from a gas meter to a smelting pot in a basement beneath the room. The police found two soldering irons in the smelting pot. and a weapon known as a “sand-bag” (produced) in a nearby cupboard. Kelly had been using the smelting method to get rid of stolen pens and pencils. He had found that the gold in them was valuable. Of 1316 pens, valued at £478, which had been stolen, more than 1200, worth more than £4OO were still missing. Kelly, said Detective Newton, was a well-known shop-lifter. To avoid arrest. he would resort to falsehood and violence.

Kelly declared that much of the police evidence consisted of “a lot of lies.” He suggested that the police had deliberately transferred his fingerprints from a piece of paper to a piece of glass. He offered to demonstrate how the transfer could be accomplished, but Judge Curlewis pointed out that materials were not available in court for such a demonstration.

Kelly admitted previous convictions. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment.