Robbing the Poor.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1404, 26 January 1899, Page 16

Robbing the Poor.

SEVERE COMMENT BY THE JUDGE

Before Mr Loveland-Loveland, Q.C.. at the County of London Sessions on December 4, William Butt, 59, bailiff, and Frederick Richard Gurling, 38, agent, were convicted of robberies of the most heartless description. The prisoners lived in the same house at Holly Lodge, Wellesloy-avenue, Shepherd’s Bush, Butt being a licensed bailiff and Gurling his assistant. Henry Walter Jones, one of the prosecutors, lived with his wife and family upon the same premises and in August last Jones was unfortunate enough to get sent to prison for some offence. During the time he was incarcerated, Butt, the landlord of Holly Lodge, obtained in October last a small tenement distress warrant from tho police-court, and Mrs Jones with her family and furniture were ejected from lhe house, the furniture being placed in an adjoining yard, where it was seen by Police-sergeant Sanders, 86 T. Two or three days afterwards Mrs Jones went to the place with a view to taking tho goods away, but she found they had gone, and Butt, on that occasion, threatened that if she did not leavo he would set his dogs on her. Jones, a week later, was released, and he found that even the children’s clothing had been sold by the prisoners, whilst his horse and harness had also been disposed of. In another case, in which the prisoners were put in possession for rent due to a landlord of a house in Queen’s-road, Notting Hill, on October 11, they took away all the goods, valued at £l4, although only 23s was owing. Detectivesergeant John Palfrey, of the X Division, informed the Court that Gurling was one of a combination of ten men. For the past eight years they had preyed upon the very poorest of poor people in West London—Kensal Rise, Notting Dale, &c., getting ejectment orders trom the landlords of houses, taking expenses from them, and putting wretched people into the streets, and then taking their very few sticks of furniture away, leaving them, virtually, to starve. They had even gone so far as this: A man sentenced to a few days’ imprisonment for a petty offence, unable to pay a small fine, gave them an opportunity to put in a distress at his home because 4s or 5s was owing for rent; to put them into tho streets and take their property for their own purposes. At the time of his arrest Gurling was living with a young woman, whom he had taken away from her mother and sold her up and, hut for his apprehension, the girl might have been pursuing a certain mode of life. Gurling on one occasion represented himself as a police officer and then as a high official of a county court and even arrested a woman, whom he let go when sho gave him money. Butt was a licensed bailiff and the police had knowledge of cases where Butt had lent his license to Gurling and his companions, sent them to houses to pass as bailiffs, and Butt had come on the sccno as a servant. There were over thirty cases and the reason the men had not been prosecuted was that their victims were so poor and unable to leave their work. The Deputy-Chairman said that in the whole course of his experience he had never heard a worse case —a more terrible case—than this, because Butt had the power of law behind his back, and the way ho had used it was shocking. Gurling was sentenced to three years’ penal servitude and Butt to fifteen months’ hard labour.