MAIL BOXES ROBBED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18216, 9 October 1922, Page 9

MAIL BOXES ROBBED.

OFFENCES BY A BOY.

CORRESPONDENCE DESTROYED.

Systematic thieving from and destruction of letters led to a 15-year-old boy being charged before Mr. J. E. Wilson, S.M., in the Juvenile Offenders* Court on Saturday, with 12 separate offences. .„ Chief-Detective Mcllveney stated that the boy had been employed by Messrs. Whiteombe and Tombs, and his duties included the clearing of a private letterbox used for the convenience of customers and the collecting of letters from the firm's post office box. Since the middle of May the boy had retained six letters posted by customers in the shop and 30 letters from the post office box. From these he had extracted postal orders and money orders to the value of £7 12s sd, .md a cheque for £2 12s. He had cashed the postal notes and destroyed the money orders, the cheque, and the correspondence. His mother was dead and his father was. practically an invalid. His 'present employer spoke well of the lad. A favourable report on the accused s character and on his homo influence was given by the juvenile probation officer. The magistrate said there were two bad features about the case, one being that the thefts covered a period of fully three months, and the other that correspondence had been destroyed. The lad was fortunate, however, in having good reports, apart from these offences. He impressed upon the boy the seriousness of his actions, dwelling on the inconvenience and loss sustained by many people, and the suspicion thrown on the postal officials and his fellow employees. The case was adjourned for a year, the boy in the meantime being placed under the direction of the juvenile probation officer. Restitution of the stolen property was ordered to be made within three months.