CONTEMPTIBLE THEFT.

Waikato Times, Volume 105, Issue 17621, 28 January 1929, Page 6

CONTEMPTIBLE THEFT.

TOOLS STOLEN FROM MATE. PLEA FOR LENIENCY. PUBLIC WORKS EMPLOYEE. Edwin Kerfoot, married, aged 45 years, an electrical fitter employed by the Public Works Department, Hamilton, was convicted and fined £lO, in default one month’s imprisonment, in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court by Mr Wyvern Wilson, S.M., this morning, for the theft of fitters’ tools valued at £6 3s. The theft was described by De-tective-Sergeant Thompson as a most contemptible one, in that it involved the property of a Workmate. Harold William Ham Louie, electrical engineer, identified the tools as his property, and told the Bench that they had been removed from the workshop, where he had left them on January 19. Later, while at the Ruakura Farm, he recognised them in the possession of accused. He informed the police, and the house of Kerfoot was visited, and most of the tools were recovered. He had worked with accused for several years.

Kerfoot, in a statement to the police, denied the theft, and said he had purchased them from a friend in Frankton, whose name he would not disclose. In a later statement, however, he admitted having removed the tools, and advised the police of the whereabouts of the balance of the property, he had taken. An effort had been made to obliterate the initials of the person lo whom they belonged. Wanted Name Suppressed.

Kcrfoot pleaded guilty and elected to be dealt with in the Magistrate's Court. Ho pleaded for leniency in consideration of his grown-up family, and asked for the suppression of his name.

His Worship, in refusing accused’s request, remarked that as he had not taken his family info consideration, it was not the place of the Bench to do so. There were some bad features about the case. It was not necessary for the accused to have these articles, lie had altered the initials on the tools, and had lied to the police when approached on the matter. There were far too many cases of theft coming before the Court in New Zealand, and a tendency not to respect property, added bis Worship.