ADMITS THEFT OF 17 TABLECLOTHS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18448, 26 April 1928, Page 1

ADMITS THEFT OF 17 TABLECLOTHS.

In the Magistrate’s Court to-day, Frederick Harris Saunders pleaded guilty to a charge of stealing seventeen tablecloths, to the total value of £5, the property of Robert Malcolm and Co.

The case was heard before Mr C. R. Orr-Walker, S.M. Mr Batchelor represented accused. Chief-Detective Carroll said that on April 2 Saunders took the tablecloths from a warehouse. He sold some of them for £2. The others had not been recovered. Accused was a married man. but was not living with his,wife. In 1916 he was convicted of theft and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment.

Mr Batchelor said that accused was forty-eight years of age. He had the custody of the two boys, aged six and a half years and fifteen and a half vears, both of whom were at school. Accused had been out of work for four or five months. lie had been indulging in liquor lately, but was prepared to consent to the issue of a prohibition order. The previous case in 1916 had been a trivial one. The Magistrate; A trivial case? If is a curious thing that he was sen-, tenced to six months’ imprisonment. Saunders was remanded until to-mor-row to enable a report to be received from the Probation Officer, and to enable the Magistrate to ascertain the particulars of the previous conviction.