JEWEL THEFTS ON TRAINS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 4, 6 January 1939, Page 10

JEWEL THEFTS ON TRAINS

NEARLY £7OOO OBTAINED (By Air Mail) LONDON, Dec. 8. John Cunningham, aged 24, stated to be of no occupation, pleaded “Guilty” at the Central Criminal Court to stealing jewellery and other articles to the value of £4238 from first-class compartments of trains on the four principal railways, and was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment. He asked for a number of other offences to be taken into consideration. It was stated that the total value of the property stolen was £6969, and the approximate value of the property recovered was £3351. Cunningham was said to be a man of good character. He had travelled on the railways as a first class passenger, and during the interval for luncheon, while passengers were out of their compartments, he stole jewellery from their luggage. He disposed of the jewellery to reputable jewellers and pawnbrokers after altering it, in some cases to such an extent that it became unrecognisable. On one occasion an antique Peruvian brooch was sold for £4 or £5 as old gold. Detective Sergeant Philip Beard said that Cunningham was a married man with one child. He had not been in trouble before. He came from a most respectable family, went to a public school, and then spent 12 months in the south of France studying languages. It was estimated that he had obtained about £BB2 from the proceeds of his thefts, but the police could not discover what he had done with the money. Counsel for Cunningham said that his client was in a state of financial embarrassment when he committed his first offence. Passing sentence, the Recorder (Mr Gerald Dodson) said it was tragic beyond words to see a young man in Cunningham’s position. He had the advantages of birth, education, and knowledge, and deliberately turned W an apparently easy way of getting money. “You wilted und&r the scourge of poverty, and dishonest man,” the Recorder sai\