RECEIVER OF STOLEN GOODS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVIII, Issue 125, 10 May 1928, Page 7

RECEIVER OF STOLEN GOODS

HANDY OUTLET FOR CRIMINALS ACCUSED FOUND GUILTY. Christchurch, May 9. Described by the Crown prosecutor as a “receiver in a large way,” and a handy outlet for criminals for the disposal of stolen goods, James William Falkingham was charged at the Supreme Court to-day with receiving, on March 17 and 18, a quantity of tobacco, cigars and drapery, valued at £lO9, knowing the goods to have been stolen. The prisoner, said the Crown prosecutor, had practically retained two burglars and instructed them where to make their robberies, and the two dangerous criminals. Tretheway and Brisbane, toured up and down the country bv car, breaking into country stores and taking the goods to Falkingham. These two me* were now serving sentences. The accused, they stated, got all the proceeds of the robberies, giving them only trifling sums. When the police'searched the accused’s house they found goods concealed in various parts of the house. The accused had sold some of the goods to traders, declaring they were part of bankrupt stock. He was '« the act of trying to sell more to a tobacconist in the city when the police arrived. Evidence was given by storekeepers who had been robbed, by a hotel licensee and two tobacconists to whom accused had sold goods, and George Tretheway. one of the thieves, now servina a sentence of three years. The jury, after fifteen minutes’ deliberation, returned a verdict of guilty. The prisoner wag remanded for sentence.