LIVING BY BURGLARY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21943, 29 October 1934, Page 12

LIVING BY BURGLARY

FOUR (YEARS' ROBBERIES dinnertime raids SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON For four years until recently William Davies has been making a living as a burglar in London. The astonishing story of those four years of robbery was' told bv a detective at the police court, when Davies was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude, Davies pleaded guilty to three cases of housebreaking and one of stealing. He asked that 19 other cases should be taken into consideration. He is 41 and he has been living in one room at Walworth. His crimes were detected only after ho had been arrested on a charge of loitering. "Davies is a native of Wales," said Detective-Sergeant Gray. "Ho has four previous convictions, and was sentenced to five years' penal servitude at Bristol in 1925 for stealing jewellery. When he was released from that sentence in 11>29, he got a job as a painter at Clapham. He was looked upon there as a very good workman, but was discharged owing to slackness of trade. How the Robber Worked "The total value of the money and jewellery involved in the 23 cases that Davies admits amounts to £lllO. In each case the occupants of the houses were either out or at dinner. He invariably worked during the evening. Sometimes he would borrow a ladder from a near by building site and enter through a bedroom window, and sometimes he would climb the staekpipe. "It was during t;he remand period after Davies' arrest that detectives were able to locate where he had been living, and they went to the room which he had occupied practically since his release from prison five years ago. They took possession of some 250 articles of miscellaneous jewellery. There are still over 200 not identified that are undoubtedly the proceeds of housebreaking. "Detectives also found a small bottle of acid for testing to distinguish between gold and yellow metal. Davies had got rid of all the valuable property and left all the junk; but, unfortunately for him, this junk h«' ls brought home to him 23 cases, as people have identified it. I am of opinion that for the last four years he has been persistently and actively engaged in housebreaking." Every House In One Street The detective said that it was in Davies* favour that it was not until he lost his job in 1930 that any offences had been brought home to him. Apparently be had intended to turn over a new leaf. "In one road alone at Beekenham, where wealthy people live, Davies admits six offences," said the sergeant. "Everyone of the houses has been broken into by similar methods to those Davies adopts, and so disturbed were the residents that, 1 understand, three have left the district. ]f you happen to live in that particular neighbourhood you feel fear that you will be the next one. Servants and maids will not stop there." The chairman, Sir Percival Clarke, passing sentence, said that Davies had been terrorising people living in the districts he was visiting. When the polico did get a clue they had followed it up with great skill.