SHOP-LIFTERS PUNISHED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18342, 7 March 1923, Page 10

SHOP-LIFTERS PUNISHED

PLEA FOR PROBATION FAILS.

COMMENT BY MAGISTRATE.

"MEAN, CO]

THEFT."

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Tuesday.

" It is scarcely necessary to say that shop-lifting is a mean, contemptible theft, difficult to detect, and often bringing suspicion and discredit upon innocent people." This was what Mr. Widdowson, S.M., said at the Magistrate's Court this morning when ho sentenced Elsie May Chaney, aged 27; Frances Alice Cairns, 39; Grace Peurce, 22; Stanley Allan Miller and David Gordon Miller, each to one month's imprisonment with hard labour as a concurrent sentence on three charges of shop-lifting from the Drapery Importing Company, Strange and Co., and Hallenstein Bros,, to which accused pleaded guilty last week. The two elder women were sisters, and the Millers were sons of Mrs. Cairns. Grace Pearco was engaged to one of the Millers. When sentence was pronounced, the two elder women fell to the floor in a faint, and had to be carried from the Court. Grace Pearce gave a beseeching look to the dock, where her lover stood gazing stolidly in front of him. She then burst out crying, and walked unsteadily toward the prisoners' room, and a moment later the sound of frantic screaming was heard in the Courtroom. The magistrate said "the punishment may seem severe, but it is absolutely necessary that this class of theft should bo put down, and I hope the treatment these people have received will be a deterrent to others. The case of Chaney is difficult because she has an aged mother in need of help, but unfortunately that cannot weigh with me." Before the prisonous were sentenced the magistrate asked Mr. W. F. Tracey, who appeared for Chaney, and Mr. F. D. Sargent, who appeared for the other accused, if they had anything to say. Mr. Tracey said that since the last hearing of tho case Chaney's friends had clubbed together and offered to raise money to pay her fine if that were necessary. She could not possibly meet one herself, as she and her husband were both Pe "ir Sargent asked that the three youthful accused should be admitted to probation, and that Cairns' punishment should be something short of lmpnsonmThe magistrate then examined the probation officer's report on accused. Of the women it stated that nothing had hem known against them in the past. Of the men the report stated that they did not ioin the women until after the thefts had been committed at Strange and Co. s and Hallenstein's. . . The magistrate said that this was inconsistent with the evidence. -, Mr. Sargent said they took no part in the thefts, but they were found with the stolen goods in their possession. The Magistrate: Well they were accessories after the fact, and are as bad as the others.