WOMAN SHOPLIFTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 103, 4 May 1938, Page 12

WOMAN SHOPLIFTER

i . OMMENT BY MAGISTRATE VERY EASY TO CASTIGATE SHOPKEEPERS” [ F«r r.-e»» Association. ] WELLINGTON, May 3. , ‘lt is very easy to castigate in some ' sense shopkeepers whom it is sugI gested, perhaps by the display of their I goods and in other ways, make it posI sible for people to commit this sort ot offence. On the other hand, one must I iemember that shopkeepers are enI titled to presume that there is a rea- | sonable degree of honesty among those I patronising their shops,” said Mr. W. i F. Stilwell, the magistrate, to-day in a case in which Linda Clark, ag-d (19, married, pleaded guilty to 25 (charges of shop thefts, totalling in I value over £lOO. It was stated that, the woman was (living with her husband and child of six months, and counsel urged in her favour the amazing laxity of shopkeepers, which seemed to have rendered her more liable to temptation. Counsel also said that her husbano was a native and that the family was Hiving in what amounted to a commun!ity house. Mr. Stilwell said that prison or a borstal was unthinkable in view ot I the young baby, but it was highly dei sirable that accused should be re- ; moved for some time from her pre- ( sent environment. She was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence j if called within a period not exceeding three years, conditional upon her 1 entering and remaining in the Mount I Magdala Home, Christchurch, for two i years.