STOLEN CLOTH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23431, 22 August 1939, Page 14

STOLEN CLOTH

TWO MEN BEFORE COURT NO EVIDENCE AGAINST ONE Two men, Frederic Walter Beech, 'aged 30, seaman and painter (Mr. Noble), and Andrew Smyth, aged 46, waterside worker (Mr. Aekins), wore charged in t.li 6 Police Court before Mr. F. H. Lcvien, S.M.. yesterday with stealing about August 10 two bolts of cloth valued at £2l lis 'ld, the property |of the Cambridge Clothing Factory, Limited. Pleas of not guilty were entered on behalf of both accused. In evidence. Beech described selling a length of cloth on behalf of a man j he did not know to the proprietor of j a hotel in the city. He said lie hadJ handed the money received, £2, to this j man, and had been accosted by Oetec-J tive McLean outside the hotel. Smyth | had nothing whatever to do with the I transaction. The magistrate said there was nothing in the evidence to show that the accused Smyth was connected with the alleged offence, and ho would bo discharged. . Beech was admitted to probation for a period of 18 months, on the condition that ho paid witnesses' expenses. The magistrate made an order for the return of the goods, bTit refused an application for the reimbursement of the liotelkeeper.