THEFT OF A EWE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20233, 17 February 1934, Page 9

THEFT OF A EWE.

Single Man Sent to Prison. (Special to the *‘ Star.'*) GREYMOUTH, February 17. In the Magistrate’s Court to-day, before Mr Henry Morgan, S.M., an unemployed worker, Robert Lewis Fitzrnaurice, thirty-seven years of age, a single man, pleaded guilty to a charge that on February 15, at Greymouth, he stole a ewe, valued at £2 2s, the property of Alfred Henry Chunn. Detective-Sergeant Holmes stated that accused went into a paddock at night and killed the sheep. He left the offal there and threw the skin in the river. He took the meat, and gave a portion away, and had his housewife cook part for him. These kind of thefts had been going on for a long time, but it was difficult to get sufficient evidence unless the offenders were actually caught in the act. The accused had ‘four previous convictions for theft. The only thing that accused had put forward for his conduct was that he thought he would like some meat. The accused was well known as a sneak-thief. The Magistrate: Have you anything to say ? ? The accused: I wanted the meat, as I only get 8s 9d a week on the dole, and a man can’t live on that. The Magistrate: But you can’t steal sheep. The accused: Well, I have done it, and if I get a couple of months I will be kept. The Magistrate sentenced the accused to one month’s imprisonment, with hard labour, saying that offences of this nature were serious and difficult to trace. The accused was going the right way to become a confirmed criminal. The Magistrate hoped that this term would teach the accused to give up offending against the law.