SIXTEEN CHARGES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 128, 1 June 1937, Page 17

SIXTEEN CHARGES

THEFT AND MISCHIEF

"MENACE TO MOTORISTS"

"He is an absolute menace when at large, as far as" the motoring community is concerned. He has no fixed abode, and wanders about stealing from garages and motor-cars," said Detective-Sergeant P. Doyle when George William Low, a labourer, aged 40, appeared before Mr. W. F. Stilwell, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. Low pleaded guilty to fifteen charges of theft of tools and other articles from garages and motor-cars, and to one charge of wilfully damaging a car window valued at £2 14s. The offences occurred between May 10 and May 28. Seven took place on May 10, and two each on May 12 and 17. Detective-Sergeant P. Doyle said that the total value of the goods stolen was £38 16s 3d. Damage to locks, etc., of cars and garages amounted to £5 10s. The goods were disposed of for £5, and the accused had £1 in his possession when arrested. The accused was before the Court in 1934, and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment on each of six charges of a similar nature, the sentences to be cumulative. He had only been released a short time, and had gone straight back to his old ways. When he came b-fore the Court in 1934, he pleaded guilty to 50 charges of petty theft. "On what the detective-sergeant tells me, and from a perusal of your, list, it seems that the thefts have ex-, tended over a number of years," said; the' Magistrate. "You have- ■been punished time and again. I think a term of reformative detention is indicated." , . , ■ On one charge the accused was: sentenced to reformative detention for a period not exceeding two years, on the others he was convicted and ordered to .ome up for sentence if called upon within a period of two years. ' :