FOUR CHARGES OF THEFT

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1934, Page 6

FOUR CHARGES OF THEFT

YOUNG MAN BREAKS AND ENTERS. FRANKLY ADMITTED HIS GUILT. One charge of theft and three of breaking, entering and theft were the offences to which a young man pleaded guilty at the Stratford Court yesterday before Messrs. W. Mclnnes and A. E. Moss, J’s.P., who committed him to the Supreme Court for sentence. The accused’s name was suppressed. On a charge of- breaking and entering at New Plymouth on March 10 and stealing goods and money to the value of £9 accused was remanded to appear at New Plymouth’on March 23. Sergeant Kelly said he had been asked to request that accused’s name be suppressed in the meantime in order that the judge, when the case came before him, would be able to exercise his jurisdiction on that point.

The charges were: (a) On March 16 he stole from the dwelling of Agnes L. Hall, Miranda Street, Stratford, a signet ring valued at £1 10s; (b) on March 16 he broke and entered the dwelling of Mrs A. L. Hall and stole £5; (c) on March 16 he broke and entered by night the dwelling of Laurie W. Hall, Fenton Street, Stratford, and stole an overcoat and silk shirt valued at £5 ss; (d) on March 20 he broke and entered the dwelling of Gilbert Butler, Cloton Road, and stole £1 2s 9d in money and two novels valued at 6d, a total value of £1 3s 3d.

Agnes L. Hall, married woman residing in Miranda Street, said she knew accused who, on March 15, was sitting on the back verandah when she returned home from the town. Accused was a distant blood relative. He said that he was unemployed, that his father would not have him at home and that his grandmother would not have him. He stayed at witness’ place that night and left about 3 p.m. on the following day. On March 18 she missed a signet ring valued at, £1 10s. Witness placed some money in a drawer in the front room of the house at about 5.30 p.m. on March 16, when the, sum was intact in the purse. About 9 p.m. that night she went to the purse to get some invoices and found that one of the £5 notes was missing. Accused had left the house at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. The window of the room was up about Ift 6in during the afternoon. Laurie Wilfred Hall, a foreman mechanic residing in Fenton Street, stated that the overcoat produced was his and he missed it from his house on the night of March 16. He worked till about 11.30 p.m. that night and thought that whoever took the coat must have entered through the bathroom window. A silk shirt was taken the same night. He valued them at £5 ss.

On the' night of March 20, said Gilbert Butler, he left his home in Cloton Road at about 7.45 p.m. The doors were locked and the windows ajar. When he returned at 10 p.m. he noticed curtains in positions different from what they had been in when he left. He found that £1 was missing from his coat pocket and 2s 9d from a pair of trousers. The two novels (produced) were in the house, though he did not miss them at the time. Constable F. Hargreaves stated that he arrested accused on Wednesday on warrant. Accused was searched and made a statement admitting that he committed the offences with which he was accused.