I THEFT OF £25

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 157, 29 March 1939, Page 13

I THEFT OF £25

1 —.—4 | Sentence Of Four Months’ 4 Imprisonment MONEY TAKEN FROM FRIEND For the theft of a wallet aud £25 in money in Wellington on March 7, William Walter Hassett, labourer, aged 27, was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment by Mr. W. F. Stilwell, S.M., in the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday. He elected to be dealt with summarily and pleaded not guilty. Detective-Sergeant P. Doyle, who prosecuted, said that complainant was Leonard Palmer, who bad known Hassett about four years. Palmer recently worked for the Public Works Department near Cambridge and saved £35, which he had in six £5 notes and five £1 notes. He adopted the wise practice, though an unusual one among labourers, of taking the numbers of the notes. When he booked in at a private hotel in Wellington he had five £5 notes and ■goniA £1 notes. He saw Hassett on March 4 and each day till March 7. He gave him the number of his hotel room. They bad drinks and a meal together, which Palmer paid for. In the afternoon of March 7 Palmer returned to his hotel, more or less under the influence of liquor. The wallet containing the money was in the hip pocket of his

trousers, which he threw over a bed before going to sleep. The next morning the wallet and money were missing, and the wallet was later found empty on a window sill in the passage by a hotel maid. On the same afternoon Hassett cashed a £5 note in the bar of an hotel, the number corresponding to that of one of Palmer’s notes. Evidence was given by Palmer. In reply to Hassett he said be did not take him to his room at any time. Other evidence was from a barman who cashed a£s note for Hassett, a licencee’s assistant, the maid who found the wallet, and David Ross, city council employee, whom Hassett told he was receiving compensation and had given a friend four £5 notes.

Movements Denied. Detective R. Tripney produced a statement taken from Hassett when interviewed by himself and Detective Alty. Hassett said Palmer invited him to his room on March 4. He denied going there on March 7 or cashing a £5 note in an hotel bar. He went to the pictures on the afternoon of March 7 and again at night. He slept on the porch at his parents’ home. He could produce witnesses, but wished to see them before the detectives. The hearing was interrupted by a man at the back of the court, who said he wished to give evidence on behalf of his son. In evidence Hassett repeated the explanation he made to the detectives. Dennis Patrick Hassett said his son slept on the porch of his house ou March 7. He admitted telling Detective Tripney he had not seen his son for four months. The magistrate: You should not do that. It might cause no end of trouble. ’ “For a young man he has a particularly bad list,” said Detective-Sergeant Doyle when Hassett had been convicted. He was a good worker in the country, but when in Wellington he associated with the criminal class and drank excessively.