THEFT CHARGES

Hokitika Guardian, 16 March 1931, Page 2

THEFT CHARGES

OUTSIDE INFLUENCE.

REFORMATIVE DETENTION, CHRISTCHURCH, March 14. That outside influences had been responsible for a series ol theits spread over a period of seven months, committed h.v Mabel Hayes, a saleswoman aged twenty-seven years, was stated by (,'iiie?-Detective Carroll aiui Air Thomas in the Police Court yesterday morning: Accused pleaded guilty through her counsel, Me Thomas, to throe charges of tlujft of goods amounting in all to £B4 13s 8d from J. Lallantyne and Co. After a lengthy consideration of the case by the Magistrate, she was convicted and ordered to ho detained tor reformative purposes for a period of eighteen months. Chid-Detective Carroll said that the girl had been employed as an assistant at R.tllantyneks for eighteen months on a wage of £4 5s a week. There was a system in the firm under which employees could not take any parcels out of the store, but accused got over that by giving parcels to a friend. All the goods had been recovered. Nothing else was known against her. “She seems to have been under the influence of someone else,” said the Chief-detec-tive. “and it has not been for her good.” Tiie “someone else” was a married man living apart from his wife It would he in the interests ol the woman liersell to be separated from the man. Air Thomas said that the case was an extraordinary sail one. Iho woman was close on thirty years cl age, and had up to then been in no other

trouble. Her record i( t Ballanty tie's and at other firms, up to her lapse, lincl Peon excellent. B he had had some grievance with her employers about wages at the time the offences began. Hu had investigated the matter and found tlmro was nothing in it. .She had been generously and properly treated by the firm. It was true that there were other influences, but they seemed to be removed. The person concerned was now in permanent work a hundred miles away. “1 would submit,” said Mr Thomas, ‘‘that she is olio who would benefit by sympathetic treatment rather than being shut away .or a period.” lie suggested a deferred sentence, so that she could, under Adjutant Coombes, of the Salvation Army, have the chance to rehabilitate hcrseli and become a good citizen. She had a terrible lesson, as her appearance showed, and she ought to make good yet. ‘‘This sort of thing cannot be tolerated a moment,” said Air Mosley S.AI. “The thefts showed system and intention over a period. Xo Court con id overlook it. In these days of stress and trouble the Court has got to see that people meet their responsibilities like honourable men and women.”