THEFT CHARGES

Hokitika Guardian, 25 August 1933, Page 7

THEFT CHARGES

STOREKEEPER FINED. AUCKLAND, August 23. A fine of £lO, in default three months’ imprisonment, was imposed by Mr W. R. McKean, S.M., in the Police Count, on Edward James Atkinson, storekeeper, aged 31, who appeared for sentence on a charge of stealing groceries valued at £5 Is 9d from a city warehouse. Detective-Sergeant O’Sullivan said accused had taken the goods at various times merely by putting them under his arm and walking out of the store with them. Mr Dickson said accused had been hard pressed to keen hi s business going. When approached by the police, he had given them every assistance. “There is certainly evidence of some slackness *of control in the warehouse if accused was able to commit the thefts so apparently easily,” said the magistrate, in imposing a fine. “Accused has just been loitering about the boats for the last three months and making a nuisance of himself,” said Detective-Sergeant O’Sullivan, when Leslie Hugh Marshall, panelbeater, aged 35, pleaded guilty to a charge of being found without lawful excuse on the steamer Waimarino. A conviction wa s entered, and accused was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within 12 months. A piea of not guilty w#s entered by a motor mechanic, John Patrick Bryant. aged 27, to charges of stealing a billiard cue, valued at 10s, from a billiard saloon. He was fined £2, in default 14 days’ imprisonment.