SHOPLIFTING HABIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHOPLIFTING HABIT.

EXTRAORDINARY CASES

SISTERS SENT TO PRISON. "Scores of people yearly are shocked to find that their womenfolk, in every other way estimable citizens, are shop lifting thieves." Mr. Dummett, the Marylebone magistrate, made this comment recently on a London case. Before the court were two sisters accused of shoplifting in West End stores —Mrs. Mary Lally, aged 30, and Nancy Gavin, aged 24, a companion. The magistrate sentenced them to six weeks' imprisonment. Both women gave notice of appeal and were released on bail. The women pleaded guilty to the theft of hats, remnants, bathing suits, dresses, etc., to the value of £iß 4s 9d from

Selfridge'Sj and other articles, value 37s 6d, at the premises of Messrs. D. H. Evans. Prosecuting counsel, stated that at Selfridge's they stole 18 articles from seven departments. Lully had £o 12s in her possession, while her sister, who until two months ago resided with her parents at Swansea, had 19s Bd. The husband of Lally, a warrant officer in a foot regiment, told the magistrate he was at a loss to explain his wife's conduct, for she had everything that she wanted. The employer of Gavin, stated that her arrest had come as a shock to him, for he only knew her as a respectable girl of good character. Mr. . Dummett remarked that he was very sorry for the husband of Lally in his anguish. The difficulty which the courts had to face, he said, was that women who everybody had thought to be honest and respectable, were, in fact, practiced shop thieves. It was impossible to believe that the accused went off on this marauding expedition for the first time that day, or that they robbed the stores in this barefaced, impudent and persistent manner without having become practiced to it. There had been no hurried, anxious, nervous, getting away in these cases, as with the first offender; they had gone on steadily until they had taken over £2O worth of goods. Their conduct explained why the West End stores were losing to the extent of tens of thousands evory year.