TWO MEN CHARGED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20540, 15 February 1935, Page 7

TWO MEN CHARGED.

Allegation of Theft From Hotel. Harry Betts and George Banyon Carey were jointly charged in the Supreme Court this morning, before Mr Justice Johnston, with (a) on January 15, stealing a suit case and contents valued at £6 10s and £3 in money, the property of Charles Fitzgerald, and (b) receiving a white silk shirt, knowing it to have been stolen. Mr Donnelly prosecuted, and Mr A. B. Hobbs appeared for the accused. The Crown Prosecutor said that the suit case and money were stolen from a room in the King George Hotel. The two accused had been seen in the bar of the hotel, and Betts had been round upstairs by the barman, and was ordered down. The only article recovered was the shirt, which was found in the room which the accused men occupied together. The complainant Fitzgerald identified the shirt positively by means of certain marks on the wrist bands. The conclusion was that Betts and Carey had stolen the suitcase in which the shirt had been. Either that, or they had received the shirt knowing it to have been stolen. Evidence as indicated was given by Charles Fitzgerald, the complainant, and George Sinclair Smith, barman at the King George Hotel. Mr Hobbs pointed out to the jury that the whole case rested on the identification of an ordinary white shirt by dirty cuffs. No other missing articles were found, either in the room occupied by the two accused, or in any second-hand dealer’s shop. The jury retired at 1 p.m. The jury returned at 2.25 p.m. with a verdict of guilty on the theft charge. The prisoners were remanded for sentence.