THEFTS FROM RAILWAYS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12760, 2 October 1919, Page 10

THEFTS FROM RAILWAYS.

_^ — *j S&ME BRITISH LINES. 1 In a railway thieving case tried in M . Glasgow it was stated that the North j British Railway Company last- year paid ! .£20,000 compensation for goods stoleu Sail over the system. Other railway companies are heing . mulcted to pretty ; much the same extent in both Scotland I and England. In probably two-thirds ' of the convicted cases for railway robI beries the culprits are railway employees. | All sorts of things have been stolen i and tampered with, even to the extent 8 of mail bags containing valuable securities, says the ""Weekly Scotsman." Nui merous prosecutions in the Police Court j do not seem to have had any effect in ' reducing the volume of commodities gog ins: a-missing on the railways, i Revelations of thieving on a wholej sale scale from the railway were made I at Perth a short time ago, when an m engine-kindler pleaded guilty to the H indictment, and was sentenced to nine I months' imprisonment. A fair-sized ' shop could have been handsomely stocked 1 with the goods illicitly taken from 1 vans, trucks, etc. An idea of the extraordinary extent to which this railway • j employee " helped himself" may be j gathered from the fact that among u I host of other commodities there were j close upon 7001b of sugar, more than ■ 1001b of oatmeal, 801b of potatoes, 50ib i of tea, as many pounds of currants, and !a fine "sonsy" cheese weighing 84ib. j Then, just a few weeks ago. the tables j at Todmorden Police Court were erowdI ed with all manner of goods—mostly j " soft " goods in this case—subsequent- ' ly proved to have been stolen in railway transit. The stolen articles included cigars, gents' suits, trousers, socks, leggings, shirts, overcoats, ladies' clothing, portmanteau, men's bicyde, shoes, eiderdown, and —just, as it were, to give a nice "tone'" to the whole , thing—-a concertina, of a total value exceeding .£6O. Five 1 Lancashire and Yorkshire railway offieialfH-all with long service to their credit—stood in the dock charged with, pilfering the aforesaid articles. * As was stated for the company, these railway robberies were appalling. The companies 'wanted them stopped. Systematic pilfering had obtained at •Todmorden for over twelve months, and every grade of men at the station were involved in the charge. Todmorden was the principal exchange station for parcels traffic, and tho various articles were stolen in transit, sentences ranging from two to four mouths, with hard labour, wore passed. fn smother case no fewer than twelve shunters on the Midland were «snt to for stealing from tltcir employers. They had M"*2 pairs of Bocks, and l''.TK) of army goods, besides a quantity of whiiJky. For a considerable time Rugby station was notorious all over the .system for the number and extent'of its robberies. At last the railway police got a clue, which led them to examine the bouses of four goods porters and a brakesman. The police had "struck oil" with a vengeance. Stolen goods to the amount of throe van loads were found. These included carpets, jewellery, wines, spirits, clothes of all sorts, and no less than £l5O -worth of groceries. An endless succession of claims for . goods which had disappeared in transit put another railway corajiany on their mettle. As a final resource, thre-> detectives hid themselves in a goods van. A few hours later, at a wayside station, the van was broken into, and , several mr-u lregan removing things and hiding them in a looker on the engine. The result was that two drivers, two , guards, and two firemen were brought j to justice. i There is even one case on record in I which an inspector turned thief, and j for three years continued to rob his employers.