POLICE COURT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17776, 9 May 1921, Page 8

POLICE COURT NEWS.

THEFtS BY YOUNG MEN. UNEMPLOYMENT PLEADED. Unemployment or only partial employment was the excuse for a first resort to thieving put forward on behalf of two young men, who appeared before Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., in the Police Court on Saturday. Harold Percival Hedges, aged 22, who had a wife and child, admitted having taken 323 from the pockets of some trousers he had found hanging in a valve house at the sewage works at Orakei. He could not obtain employment at his occupation (roof-tiling), and the police said they were satisfied that he was really hard up. The greater part of the stolen money had been spent in groceries'.* Accused was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, provided ho made restitution of the money within a fortnight. Arthur Robert Quidley, aged 24, pleaded guilty to charges of stealing money from his- brother-in-law's house on successive days in April and May. He was staying at th e time at his brother-in-law'p house, and took sums of money, ranging from £2 to £10, from a bedroom. The police gave him a good character, and said h© was in a delicate state of health, resultant on four years' war service. In reply to His Worship, accused said he was a coliarmaker by trade, and was only working on half-time. As a result he was earning from ,35s to 40s a week, out of which he was paying rent. The' £10 note he stole on one occasion was spent on a suit of clothes. Accused was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when called upon, on condition that he- refunded the stolen money at the rate pi 20s a week. GAOL FOR STEALING A RUG.ONvo charges, of drunkenness and the fMi't of a rug, were preferred against James Clark, aged 40. A week before ho bad been convicted and ordered to come "up for sentence when called upon on a chfep of vagrancy but was B till found to When arrested he was tryitig to wfl the rag He wars sentenced to. ffiae month s imprisonment.