CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 3345, 13 May 1926, Page 6

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

SWIFT DISCOVERY OP THEFT. [Per Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. Finding herself in urgent need of money, a housemaid in a private hofel was tempted to steal £5 from a wellliilod purse under a boarder’s pillow while making- his bed tills morning. Discovery and arrest followed swiftly, and she appeared in the Magistrate’s Court this afternoon before Mr. H. A. Young, S.M., charged with the tneft of £5, the property of Andrew James McClintok. Accused pleaded guilty, and elected to bo dealt with summarily. Chief Detective T. Gibson, said tne girl, whose age was 24, was a housemaid at a boardinghouse, and wnen making a bed she found a purse under the pillow, containing about £25. She took a £5 note from the purse, then replaced it, and hid the note under the linoleum. She told the proprietress that she had found the purse, and then told the owner, who on going ■to get it, found that £5 was missing. She denied the theft on being accused of It, but when interviewed by Detective Bayliss, had admitted her guilt. She was in an unfortunate position, as she was to be confined in about a month, and intended to lay a complaint against the father of the child. The Magistrate said thart the female Probation Officer’s report as to me character of accused, was good, and her employer spoke highly of her. Under the circumstances set out by the Chief Detective, the temptation mudt have been very great. Indeed, it might have been too strong for any young woman placed as accused wan. Also she had taken only sufficient to pay for her confinement expenses. Sne would bo convicted and admitted to probation for twelve months, and under the special circumstances, he would order her name to bo suppressed.