THEFT CHARGE FAILS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 607, 8 March 1929, Page 11

THEFT CHARGE FAILS

MAGISTRATE DOUBTS WITNESS COLLAPSE IN THE BOX "I am asked to believe that this young man jumped a shop counter and stole cigarettes in front of a boy who was said to be his enemy.” With this comment, Air. F. H. Levien, S.M., dismissed a charge of theft preferred against Anthony Howley at the Police Court this morning. Howley, a bootmaker aged 19. pleaded not guilty, through Mr. Watson, to stealing 29 tins of cigarettes valued at £ 1 4s from George Alyles. Gordon Henry Wilson said that he was in Air. Alyles’s sho'p near the Three Lamps last Friday, and asked for change of a £.l note. The proprietor went into the back of the shop for the money, and witness was left alone in the shop when Howley came in, and jumped the counter, stuffing tins of cigarettes in the front of his shirt. "He warned me not to say a word.” continued Wilson, "and ran out of the shop and down the road.” After admitting to Mr. Watson that he was not friendly with Howley. the witness collapsed and had to be led out into the fresh Counsel called evidence to show that accused was playing billiards about the time when the offence was said to have been committed. "No jury would convict in this case,” remarked the magistrate, "and I have to consider it from the point of view of a jury.” Mr. Levien called attention to the fact that Wilson had made no emphatic, protest when the theft was said to have been committed. It. was an improbable story, he added.