RAILWAY DRIVER PLEADS GUILTY TO CHARGE OF THEFT

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 October 1947, Page 6

RAILWAY DRIVER PLEADS GUILTY TO CHARGE OF THEFT

WIDE RANGE OF GOODS LOST IN TRANSIT (P.A.) Palmerston North, Oct. 1. Pleading guilty in the Magistrate’s Court to three charges of theft as a servant, one of common theft, and eight of receiving stolen goods, Spencer Cuthbert Toon, railway locomotive driver, married, aged 48, was committed to the Supreme Court, Palmerston North, for sentence. On three other charges of breaking and entering into premises and committing crimes therein Toon pleaded not guilty and reserved his defence. He was committed to the Supreme Court at Palmerston North for trial.

Three charges of theft as a servant preferred against Toon related to goods allegedly stolen from the New Zealand Railways over a period from June 1, 1945, to September 5, 1947, to a total value of £24. Goods involved in those three charges included golf clubs, golf balls, a golf bag, umbrellas, a radio receiving set, a car tyre, a motor-car seat, a quantity of pegs, eight new car tyres, a lawnmower, girls’ sockettes, razor blades, hair clips, ■ hairnets, a bed sheet, face towels, cot blankets, working trousers, women’s stockjngs, plastic handbags, women’s shoes, singlets, cotton shorts, envelopes, not books, pest exterminator powder, electric light bulbs, glue, gumboots, grates, scythe blades, car pumps, grease guns, car tools, crosscut saw, carpentering tools, engineering tools, cement, fencing wire and car wheels. The charge of common theft was that, between May and August this year, he stole two large and two small wooden post blocks to the value of £2 6s, the property of the post and Telegraph Department. The eight charges of receiving stolen goods related to propertyvalued at £237 3s 3d and ranged over a period from August, 1940, to September 5, 1947. The goods involved included paint, polish, tea, condensed milk, cough mixture, bottles of laxative, bottles of breath sweetner, headache cures, shaving cream, cake, patty papers, braces, shoe laces, blind fittings, switches, valve connections, malthoid, a motor fan, a lantern, paint brushes, water taps, sports coats, motor tyres, single sheets, double sheets, women’s slippers, sandals, a mattress, a car tyre, toothpaste, soap powder, cotton bed covers, girls’ shoes, sherry, hair brushes, butter, cocoa, cordial, syrup, soup powder, wood, bits, a tenon saw, a steel square and drill, a. tent, steel planes and spokeshave and other tools. Among the many witnesses identifying the property was William Andrew Scott, claims clerk, Palmerston North railways goods office. It was his duty to deal with all claims for goods lost in transit by rail from Palmerston North. At the request of the police he made an inspection of goods at the police station. For the convenience of the Court he had prepared an inventory relating to certain of those goods which, he claimed, have been stolen from the Railway Department.