POLICE COURT NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20384, 12 October 1929, Page 14

POLICE COURT NEWS.

MAN STEALS FOUR WATCHES

REFORMATIVE DETENTION

Four charges of stealing watches, of a total value of £l4 10s, and one of attempting to steal a ring valued at £3. wore preferred against Ernest Edward Cuthbertson Maxey, aged 48, labourer, in the Police Court yesterday. Chief-Detective Hammond said that Maxey made a practice of going to houses asking for jewellory to bo repaired. He was not a watchmaker, but took the articles to someone else to be mended, and sometimes ho pawned them. He was caught when about to pawn the ring. Accused had 75 previous convictions for various offences. Maxey was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, to be followed by two years' reformative detention. Remanded from last Friday, Charles Eric Spurgeon, aged 41, engineor, appeared on six charges of obtaining credit by fraud from city drapery firms, the charges involving £23 ss. Mr. Dickson, who had previously entered a plea of not guilty, said that Spurgeon bad just come up from the West Coast, where he. had been ruined by the earthquake. He had a wife and children, and was penniless. Chief-Detective Hammond said that Spurgeon had five previous convictions. Spurgeon was convicted on the first charge and remanded for sentence for a week, pending a report from the probation officer. Pleading guilty to two charges of theft, Leonard Parks, aged 36, and Alieouen Allan Gibson, aged 38, engineers, were remanded until Tuesday for sentence. The charges involved the theft of copper wire, of a total value of £32.