SENTENCES WITHHELD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20639, 20 August 1941, Page 6

SENTENCES WITHHELD

MAORI WOMAN’S THEFTS VAGRANCY ALLEGED A sister of the accused was the principal witness in a police case against Maud Cribb, a Maori woman, also known as Maud Cleaver Lim, who was charged before Mr. E. L. Walton, S.M., in the Gisborne Police Court to-day, with the theft of a cardigan valued at £2, and two pairs of shoes valued at £1 15s. She was also charged with being an idle and disorderly person. Mr. L. T. Burnard appeared for the accused. The goods concerned in the charges were identified by their owners, the pullover having been taken from the house in which the accused’s sister was working and the shoes having been received by mistake from a shoe repairer, and not returned. The accused’s sister stated that she had taken the pullover, and that the accused had also used it and had then withheld it for fear that the witness would get into trouble. The witness had been: sent to ask for her sister’s shoes at a shoe repairer’s, and had received the wrong shoes by mistake. Detective-Sergeant R. H. Waterson gave evidence on the idle and disorderly charge. He stated that the accused had done no work since June, and was living with a young Chinese. The police regarded her as a menace to t.he community on account of her state of health. Mr. Barnard said that the accused had not had any guilty intent, in dealing with the stolen articles. The evidence as to her way of living, he also urged, was the clearest proof that she was not without visible means of support. His Worship: You are not forgetting the word “lawful” in the charge? The accused was convicted on all three charges, and was remanded until September 1 for sentence. On a charge of riding a bicycle at night without lights, Maud Cribb also was convicted and discharged.