SERIES OF THEFTS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 91, 14 October 1932, Page 11

SERIES OF THEFTS

BOARDERS ROBBED

A BAD CHARACTER

'"'The accused is a ifian with nineteen convictions for theft within a few years, and, without doubt, he is onef of the worst thieves we have had about for some time," said Detective-Sergeant Eevell,. when William Henry Gough, a. baker, aged 31, pleaded guilty at the Magistrate's Court to-day to three charges;of theft of goods, valued at.£36 lls 3d,, and also ,tp failing to' comply with' the terms of' his release on probation.' . ; . . The Probation Officer (Mr. T. P. Milk) said that the accused had been granted probation five times. His Department wished to get Gough off the probation register, as there was no hope o£ restitution ever being made.- .-.. - .... ■_■:■'. ...... The accused-was before the.Court'ijwice in September, when he was sentenced to twelve months', imprisonment for stealing from "boarding-houses. ■ - :

Mr. Revell said that the three charges now brought"i against the accused related to offences • committed at Christchurch in August. The accused's methods were the same as those he had adopted afc Wellington; he would; go to boarding-house keepers. and represent that he was a postal official on transfer. 'Once he gained admittance to -the" ionises,; he would await liis opportunity and go round the boarders' rooms stealing what he could. The Magistrate, Mr. E. Page, S.M., sentenced the accused to reformative detention for a period not exceeding.three yeaTs, to be served at the end of his present sentence. On each.of the other, charges the accused was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence within three years if called upon.