HAMILTON SHOPLIFTER

Hokitika Guardian, 25 October 1929, Page 8

HAMILTON SHOPLIFTER

WOMAN ADMITS GUILT. “The only thing that prevents me from sending you to gaol is yqur age, said M,r Wyvern Wilson, S.M., at the Hamilton Police Court, to Rosina Land ; aged 52, a married woman with nine children, who pleaded guilty to three charges of shoplifting from Fow, Cobbe and Co’s auction mart. The articles included a tape measure, a coat, dress, four singlets, a pair of garters, a tin of cocoa, the total value being £6 ss. Detective-Sergeant Thompson said he followed the qccused last Tuesday, and Ifound the articles in a basket which she carried. He searched her home and found a quantity of other goods which had been stolen. The accused said she had been worried over the imprisonment of her son, and had tried unsuccessfully to get him released from gaol. There w r ere no previous convictions against the woman. On behalf of the accused Mr J. F. Strang said that cases of shoplifting were rare in Hamilton. The woman was at a critical period of life, and her husband had noticed eccentricities. She had a good home and no financial worries.

The magistrate refused to grant an order to suppress her name, pointing out that in such cases publicity was the chief punishment. The commercial community had to be protected. Tn fining the woman £2O and costs, Mr Wilson said that, in such cases, probation was no remedy^ w