WOMAN SHOPLIFTER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19622, 4 May 1938, Page 7

WOMAN SHOPLIFTER

THEFTS EXCEED £IOO COMMITTED TO HOME (I'm- Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. "Tt is very easy to castigate in some sense the shopkeepers for the display of their goods, but on the other hand. one must remember that the shopkeepers are entitled to presume ther; is a reasonable degree of honesty among those patronising their shops, said Mr. W. F. Stilwell, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court to-day in a case in which Linda Clark, aged 19. married. pleaded guilty to 20 charges ol shop thefts, totalling over £IOO. It was stated that the woman was living with her husband and had a child of six months. Counsel urged in her favour the amazing laxity of shopkeepers which seemed to have made her more liable to tepmtation. Counsel also said that her husband was a native and that the family was living in what amounted to a community house. Mr. Stilwell said that to send the accused to prison or Borstal was unthinkable in view of her young baby, but it was highly desirable that the accused should be removed lor some time from her present environment. She was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon for a period not exceeding three years, conditional on her entering and remaining at Mount Magdala Home, Christchurch, for two years.