TRADESPEOPLE DEFRAUDED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 3 November 1917, Page 6

TRADESPEOPLE DEFRAUDED

An unusual system of obtaining goods without paying for them was revealed ,in the Auckland Police Court the oilier ; day says the Herald, when Ruby Gent, alias Barrett, Smith, and charged before Air F. V. $ with obtaining by » false prfetence silk and muslin, valup £6 ss, from E. Rimmer; three pair® of boots, .value £2 6s 9d, from. Hallenstein Bros.; two pairs of boots, valu® £2 Jds, ,from Hallenstein Bros.; » brnsh/ 'comb, chocolates, feeding bottle and other articles, value ±sl 5s 6d, from A. Eccles; soap, lavender and other articles, value £1 Is 9d, from J. C. Sharlarid; a perambulator, value £4 5s from W. A. Thompson; and flannel, calico, hose, and other articles value £2 7s 9d, from Auld and Co. She pleaded guilty. Chief-Detective McMahon said accused was 29 years of age, and her husband who was in Wellington, had been sending her. money regularly. Evidently he did not send her enough ,and she adopted a peculiar method of getting various goods. Under an assumed name she would write to a firm and ask for goods to be sent to a country town. She would then write to the postmaster of that town and arrange to have any thing for her re-addressed to a suburban post office. Detective Sweeney and Constable McHugh had been looking" for her for a long time, and when arrested she promptly admitted obtaining the goods. All the articles except | a few trifles were found in her home. | The false pretence consisted of giving the fictitious name and address, which prevented business people tracing her. She had three young children, one of whom was two months old. Some 15 or 16 years ago she had come into contact with, the police and had been allowed 12 months' probation. Mr Delamore, for accused, said she had plenty of money. He suggested that it was a case of a woman committing' needless thefts while in a peculiar state of mind, due to her condition of health at the time. Accused was convicted on all charges and ordered to come up for senj tence if called upon within three years, and placed under informal probation. She w'as also ordered to pay £1 19s costs.