THEFTS FROM HOTELS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10610, 8 June 1920, Page 5

THEFTS FROM HOTELS

‘A COMMON PRACTICE.”

OFFENDER SENT TO GAOL.

“Coats have been disappearing from hotels and motor-ears much too frequently during the last two or three months,” said Chief-Detective IVard in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, when Daniel Andrew Williams, a labourer and bush-worker, was charged with the theft of an overcoat- valued .at £o, tho property of William Squires. , . . The overcoat, together with a hat had been left in the hall ot the Royal Oak Hotel, and on returning the owner found both had. disappeared. The next morning the coat was found in a second-hand shop, \vhere VViiliama had disposed of it for Ins bd. That he sold the coat was not denied bv the accused, but he stated that it had been handed to him by another man, on whose behalf he so d it. However, the accused was unablo to give the man’s name and address to the chief-detective. In sentencing Williams to a month s imprisonment, Mr E. Rage, S.M., remarked ' that the offence was -a common one, and difficult to detect.