THEFT FROM HOTEL ROOM

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 4 May 1934, Page 4

THEFT FROM HOTEL ROOM

TOILET ACCESSORIES STOLEN ONE MONTH’S IMPRISONMENT Drunkenness and tlieft were responsible for the appearance of helix Mulligan, alias James McAuley, aged 43, and a native of Scotland, before Messrs B'. Dixon and L. A. Bone J’s.P., in the tLawera Magistrate’s Oourthoure this morning. . On a charge of drunkenness m fiigli Street yesterday Mulligan pleaded guilty and was convicted and discharged. He was -also charged with stealing from the Commercial Hotel a pair ol scissors, a razor, a shaving; brush, a, stick of shaving soap and a tube of tooth paste valued at £2 2s, the property of Douglas James Guiney, a boarder at the hotel. Accused pleaded guilty and elected summary trial. in conducting the police prosecution Sergeant J. Henry isaid that Mulligan was a “bird of passage and had a formidable list of previous convictions.” At mid-day yesterday he was found pi the yard of the Commercial Hotel in suspicious circumstances and was handed over to the police. Various articles were found in libs possession, but as the poljce could substantiate no charge against him, lie was allowed to go. In the evening, when the boarder returned to the hotel, the loss of certain articles from his room was reported and shortly after accused was located and taken in charge. Mulligan, who previously had given a fictitious name, admitted' stealing the goods and selling them to a Maori on the street for 2s. Sergeant Henry commented on the frequency recently of thefts from hotels and boarding houses and asked that an example be made of accused as a possible deterrent to others similarly minded. . , Mulligan was convicted and sentenced 1 to one month’s imprisonment m the New Plymouth gaol. An order was nade for tie return of the .stolen goods to their rightful owner.