UNBIDDEN GUESTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 547, 27 December 1928, Page 6

UNBIDDEN GUESTS

HOUSE-REPAIRER AS BURGLAR ARE YOU WORKING OVERTIME In a fainting conditfbn a young woman was assisted from the dock at Manchester Sessions after the Recorder, Sir W. Graves-Lord, K.C., M.P., had ordered her discharge in a remarkable case. The proceedings formed the sequel to a surprise discovery made in the house of Mr. William Crozier, of Anson Road, Victoria Park, Manchester. While Mr. Crozier was away on holiday a police officer called at the address and found the cellar door had been forced. The police immediately got into communication with Mr. Crozier, who, together with a detective, entered the dwelling and found it in a state of great disorder, many articles of clothing and other personal property being missed. In the house, it was alleged, were Wilfred Ronald Williams, 28, motor driver; Samuel Petrie, 20, moulder; and Sarah Frances Barton, 23, factory hand. When these three appeared charged with breaking into the place, the police offered no evidence against Barton, as they thought she had been taken into the house by the two men, and she was discharged. Both Williams and Petrie pleaded guilty, and the former was sentenced to nine months’ hard labour, while Petrie was bound over. Charles Yeo, 35, labourer, who appeared with them, was found guilty on a charge of receiving a medal taken from the house. He was also charged, in company with Wilfred Wrigley, 30, bricklayer, with breaking into the house of Arthur Ross Jung, of Daisy Bank Road, Victoria Park, and stealing articles worth £125. In this case, stated Mr. Rycroft, prosecuting, Mr. Jung returned home after being away and found his residence in a state of great disorder. A next-door neighbour, Mrs. Sumner, said that she had seen Wrigley repairing some property a few houses away. One day she saw him outside the back gateway of Mr. Jung's house with another man. He was talking to another man inside the house, and there was a sudden crash of glass. With the obvious intention of allaying Mrs. Sumner’s suspicions, Wrigley called out: “Hello! are you working overtime?” Afterwards the men went away. Subsequently Wrigley called at a second-hand clothes dealer’s shop and sold a quantity of clothing for 255. A few days later he told the dealer to say nothing about the clothes to anyone, and when asked if they had been stolen, he answered, “Yes.”

Wrigley told the police he bought the clothes from Yeo for 20s, and sold them for 255.

It was revealed that Wrigley had nine previous convictions, and Yeo had 20.

The Recorder, in sentencing both men to 18 months, with hard labour, said it was clear that Wrigley had used his profession as property repairer to cover his practice of housebreaking, and it was equally clear Yeo was intent on keeping himself well in the background while encouraging others to commit the felonies.