BOY'S DARING THEFTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20199, 8 March 1929, Page 13

BOY'S DARING THEFTS.

ENCOURAGED BY AUNT.

UNUSUAL STORY IN COURT. WOMAN IMPRISONED FOR TERM. [BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] CHHISTCHURCH. Thursday. An astounding story of crime and incitement to crime was told in the Children s Court this morning when a boy of 17 years pleaded guilty to 18 charges of theft, breaking, entering and theft and mischief, the value of the goods and money stolen being £9B. His aunt, Elsie Martha Dennis Wright, pleaded guilty to four charges of receiving the goods stolen by the boy well knowing they had been dishonestly obtained. The circumstances as outlined by the police were that the boy was a daring thief and that his aunt had encouraged him in his crimes and benefited by them. She was sentenced to six months' imprisonment and the boy was placed under the carc of the superintendent of child welfare, with a recommendation that he bo sent to the Weraroa Training Farm. Although the woman's case was held in the Children's Court in conjunction with that against the boy the magistrate, Mr. E. D. Mosley, gave permission for the name to be published. Stealing from Shop Tills. Chief-Detective Carroll said of the charges against the boy nine were of breaking, entering and theft, eight were of plain theft and one of mischief. Goods worth £74 had been recovered. "The boy has been operating for some time," said the chief detective, "and nothing has been safe from him. He would go into a shop and while the proprietor's back was turned he would, under cover of the noise of a passing tramcar, rob the till. He would take anything that could be sold.

"He was particularly daring in his breaking and entering. On one occasion he broke into a house when the man of the house was outside fixing up some horses. The man came into the house while the boy was still in it, so he hid under a bed until the man had locked up and gone. Then he completed the theft of about. £2 and broke his way out again. "Mrs. Wright is the boy's aunt. The boy has been stealing for her. He told his parents he was at work, but every morning at seven o'clock lie went to his aunt's house and used it as a base for his operations. He would go back to his own home at about 6 p.m. Each week he would give his parents 10s, allegedly wages, but in reality the proceeds of some robbery." Woman's Child in Court. The son of the woman Wright, a mere child, who stood and smiled before the magistrate, was formally charged on one count. The chief detective said the bov would not have been charged, but it was thought desirable that he should be brought under the jurisdiction of the child welfare superintendent. He had merely accompanied the elder boy on one or two of his excursions. "The case against the woman is especially serious,'* lie said, "because she has been encouraging the boy to steal and j would probably have extended that to her I own son."

"What is known of the father?" asked the' magistrate. "He is a simple type of man," said fhe chief detective. The magistrate then sentenced the bov. "The little boy is also committed to the, care of the. child welfare superintendent," added the magistrate, "although, of course, in a totally different way. and with another idea in view. The mother is most certainly not a fit and proper person to look after any child. She is dangerous in any community and should be put out of the way. She. is sentenced to six months' imprisonment."