SHOPLIFTING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17179, 24 October 1923, Page 1

SHOPLIFTING.

WOMAN FINED £lO. « SHOPKEEPERS MUST BE PROTECTED.” Shop lifters must be punished severely, because shopkeepers must be protected, and they have a right to trust their customers,” said Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court this morning. when Francos Matilda Richards, aged sixty (Mr Hunter) pleaded guilty to a charge i of having stolen on October 18 a pieoe of curtain valued at 9s f>d. the property of -T. Ballantvne anri Co. Chief-Detective A. Cameron said that the accused had gone into Ballantyne r s to do some shopping, and while in the shop, she tok a piece of curtain from the. counter and put it into her bag. Mr Hunter said that the accused was a very respectable woman, and it seemed extraordinary that she should have committed the trivial theft with wh«-h she was charged. A shop-walker saw her steal the curtain, and she must have known that she had no chance of going undetected. He asked that the accused should he treated as leniently as possible, and further that her name should he suppressed from publication. The Magistrate said that he did not propose to send the accused to gaol, although such a punishment was really necessary in all shop-lifting f'ases. Neither would be admit her to probation. Rhe would he fined £lO, and he would make no order for the suppression of her name.