THREE MONTHS’ EACH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 906, 25 February 1930, Page 11

THREE MONTHS’ EACH

GUESTS WHO ROBBED THEIR HOSTS “THE SAME OLD STORY” Having admitted the theft of goods valued at £26 from a bacli in Parnell on February 15, Jack Edmund Miirley and Francis Norman Merriman appeared at the Police Court for sentence this morning. They had been taken to the bach for a meal by two charitable strangers. Each was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. Murley, alias John Valentine Proctor. a seaman aged 24. and Merriman, a salesman aged 2S, had pleaded guilty to the theft of a gramophone and clothing of a total value of £2G from Henry Courtney. Merriman was also convicted on a second charge of stealing 14 hats and a hat-box valued at £9 from Ross and Glendining Limited, on January 24. He pleaded not guilty. Evidence was to the effect that a traveller from the complainant firm had left his samples in his car from which they had been stolen under cover of night. Two of the missing hats had been sold by Merriman to dealers under an assumed name. Merriman’s explanation was that he had bought the hats from a stranger who had accosted him in Grey Street. He did not know the man’s name but thought he would recognise him if he saw him again. “It’s the same old story,” commented Mr. F. Iv.. Hunt, S.M. “Nobody has ever tried to sell me hats in the street yet.” Merriman was convicted and discharged on that charge.