CITY POLICE COURT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22203, 5 March 1934, Page 6

CITY POLICE COURT

, SAtrjßDAt, Maßoh,3. (Before Mr J, B Bartholomew, S.M.) DRUNKENNESS. •Charged .with ..drunkenness, a; first: offender waa fined 7s 6d, in default 24 hours' imprisonment. SnOPLIFTEIt CONVICTED. '~ Edna Mary, Hingley/.a'married woman, 23 years of age, pleaded guilty to having/ • between January. 5 and March 2, stolen; from two' drapery .establishments, in the city a fur necklet and two tray cloths valued at £3 ;5s ,sdy a bolt of woollen crepe valued at £1 ISs, and a bolt of li.ee and a quantity of ladies' underclothI ing valued at £l\>ls accused i was represented by Mr G.B. P. Wilson. !-—Detective Sergeant Doyle said that on ! the previous afternoon the accused was seen in the mantle department of a city drapery store, where her.movements aroused the ■> suspicions, of an assistant. Subsequently the necklet and the tray cloths -were found concealed under her coat; and these; she :-Mnritted;;bavijur stolen. - She also admitted the theft the crepe, which was later found ini her room, with the other stolen articles, which she told the police she had taken during her visits to the. stores. A -further search of the room also revealed 11' pairs, of,ladies' knickers;an& ■everal ( full sets of ladies' undenvear.. which.tliei/ accusedl could not, for satisfactorily, but as these, articles had been wished; it was; imoossible ;'.■' to identtfV them. The accused was a married woman who had come to Dunedin from Auckland only two months ago, and as her husband was in steady employment and she had no children there was n<» reason for her to steal. She had not been before the court previously, but the - quantity-of goods found in her possession indicated that she had been engaged in shoplifting ever a considerable Mr Wilson said that this was a distressing case of a woman who, having only recently arrived in Dunedin, knewna ■ one, and hadtiken to wandering through the shops to kill time.: She had no need to steal, but she had; told counsel that she had been overcome by an uncontrollable impulse to do so. She' had never been in trouble previously, but -unfoirf tunatcly she ba^ ; toft' much time „on her hands, and this, coupled with the fact that" she was suffering from nervous trouble, had' been responsible for her lapse. Counselj submitted; that 'in th)}circumstances, and in : view of the fact that the accused had alreacly; ha 3 a -salutary lesson through being in the celhi overnight, the court might extend leniency to, her,—The magistrate churacter-!: ised the accused as a persistent and de-'; liberate offender, an"d said that het case; differed from those recently before th<v court in that .there was no suggestion of destitution. She would have to b*« taught a* lesson and she would therefore: be convicted and remanded in custody until Wednesday pending a report by th» probation officer. "