“RETAINED” BURGLARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 350, 10 May 1928, Page 16

“RETAINED” BURGLARS

RECEIVER FOUND GUILTY SELLING STOLEN TOBACCO Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Wed. Described by the Crown prosecutor as “a receiver in a large way,” and a handy outlet for criminals for the disposal of stolen goods, James Wilham Falkingham was charged in the Supreme Court to-day with receiving on March 17 and 18 a quantity of tobacco, cigars and drapery valued at £lO9, knowing the goods to have been stolen. The Crown prosecutor said that accused had practically retained two burglars and instructed them where to make their robberies. Two dangerous criminals, Tretheway and Brisbane, toured up and down the country by car, breaking into country stores and taking goods to Falkingham. These two men were both now serving sentences.

Accused, they said, got all the proceeds of the robberies, giving them only trifling sums. When the police searched accused’s house they found goods concealed in various parts of the house. Accused had sold some of the goods to traders, declaring they were part of bankrupt stock. He was in the act of trying to sell more to a tobacconist in the city when the police arrived.

Evidence was given by storekeepers, who had been robbed, by a hotel licensee and two tobacconists to whom accused had sold goods, and by George Tretheway, one of the thieves now serving a sentence of three years. The jury, after 15 minutes’ deliberation, returned a verdict of guilty. Prisoner was remanded for sentence.