A LESSON TO BE LEARNED

NZ Truth, Issue 1197, 8 November 1928, Page 2

A LESSON TO BE LEARNED

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special 'Wellington Representative.) A SELECT coterie of women shoplifters came a horrible crash m the Wellington Magistrate's Court last week when, before B.M. Page, Annie Dean, Mary Wearne and Adreinne Lindsay Kershaw, all married women, were handed* out terms of Imprisonment, the two former receiving six months' apiece and the latter three months'.

With fur coat collars turned up and with bowed heads, little of the physiognomy of ;the women could be distinguished, and very penitent was their air, ' ' . There were seven charges against Dean, the amount involved total- . ling over £50. Four of the thefts were from Wellington clothing . emporiums and .three from i Chr.istchurch shops, ; „ ' Wearne had three charges of receiving chalked against her "name, . while her> daughter," Kershaw, faced one charge of theft. All three . pleaded l guilty,; •■: \ , ":"'•' Lawyer Leicester, who appeared for the women, remarked that' the thefts had apparently been committed under the desire to possess things" that women m more fortunate positions had, ■ In the ease of a man, he paid the penalty for a slip, but with a woman* the offence always remained and retribution and wreckage fol- -' lowed. .';... ; , -.';:. - ; ■■-.-• -V .■ . ■ "■.''•;■..■'.■.'.. ■_'.■-.' "-..-. What could be more painful, he said, than the spectacle of mother . and daughter before the court, tl)e latter inheriting a weakness from ■•[ her mother.- :. ,?■ '",.■>■.. . [ ■ ■■' : : ■■■ .' "•.'■. . //■ ".' : - ■ : . -.';■■ ; Chief-detective Ward, who prosecuted, intimated to the bench that all three women had previously been convicted for the same offence. ' In handing out punishment io , the accused, Magistrate Page ■'remarked that they had indulged m a systematic conduct of shoplifting. The punishment recorded, would be m respect of the first count iri each case, on the other charges they would be convicted and ordered to 'conn© iip for .sentehb© if called upbn within twelve months,