THE LARCENY AT THE SHOW
HOW A THIEF MAY ESCAPE PUNISHMENT. John Maxwell, who had been charged at the Police Court on Tuesday with stealing 2s 6d from the counter of a re* freshment booth at the Agricultural Show on Monday, and the evidence. heard for and against the case came up yesterday, for the decision of the Court. A3 daring the course of the evidence of the prosecution, a point of law had been raised as to who should have laid the information, ir. relation to the ownership of the coin which had been removed by the accused from the connter, His Worship reserved his decision until yesterday morning. In giving judgment he said: This is a case in which the'defendant is accused of stealing 2s 6d from the counter of a booth. The money was put down for the purpose of paying for drinks, and the accused, seeing complainant's back turned, appropriated the coin. It is quite plain from the evidence that the accused stole the 2s (id, but the com at the time of the act did not belong to Watt, the complainant, but- to the proprietor of the booth. In looking up the authorities, thereis one case, Regina v. Jones (Cox's Criminal Cases, p. 156) in which a sovereign was laid upon a shop counter for change, and the man serving leaving the coin on the counter proceeded to procure the necessary change, upon returning found it had disappeared, and afterwards the money was picked up on the floor by one of the persons who had accompanied the accused into the shop for the purpose of getting the coin changed. His Worship considered that there was no distinction between that and the present case, and on that ground dismissed the information on the technical point which had arisen as to the ownership of the coin. He would leave it to the police if they thought fit to lay a fresh information, and at the same time, before I discharging the accused, told him that he i had only got off on a technical objection.
The mother of the young man was in Court, and thanked Hi* Worship for his leniency.
We understand that the police do not intend to take any further action.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7175, 14 November 1884, Page 5
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377THE LARCENY AT THE SHOW New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7175, 14 November 1884, Page 5
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