SHOPLIFTERS CAUGHT

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 409, 16 April 1937, Page 6

SHOPLIFTERS CAUGHT

MAN AND WIFE CHARGED. Both Sentenced in Auckland Court. Press Assoc iat ion—C opyri gh t. Auckland, April 15. Arrested in a city department store on April 2 on a charge of stealing tour pounds of butter and a packet of cheese of a total value of 5s 6d. Stanley Baker, a painter aged 45. and his wife. Mae Barker, aged 40, appear ed on a series of shoplifting •barges in the Police Coui;t before Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M.. to-day. Mr. Allan Moody appeared for both accused and they pleaded not guilty. Duteciive-Sergeant M,cHugh prosecuted. The thefts were alleged /to have been committed between December 1 and April 2. Articles and goods alleged to have been stolen by the accused included fountain pens, foodECuffh, deck tenuis rings, boys’ shoes and stockings, women’s stockings, cameras, books, 26yds of curtain net, bridge sets and cards. scanlies, yards of elastic, electric clock, shirts, braces, cigarettes, toothpaste, cigarette lighters, women’s and men’s underwear, a game of bezique, safety razor, toy balloons, razor blades, batteries. toilet sets, leather kitbag, etc. Both under Observation. An assistant employed in a city department s'tore said he kept, both the accused under observation when they were in the \crockery department, where customers helped themselves. On the evening of Friday lasit he F.aw Mrs. Barker take pounds of butter and a packet of cheese to the male accused. He later detained both. When ‘the -butter was found in their possession both denied that they had stolen iK. Witness and others had had ihe accused under suspicion for some months. The police were communicated wi, h and a detective arrested bo'ih accused. Both the accused in evidence denied ihe offence. Cross-examined by DeteOtive-SergeaiTft McHugh, the male accused denied that he had gone'out last Friday evening with his wife and two daughters to carry out the operations of a professional shopHOier. Detective .Sergeant. McHugh: Are you a weahh.v man? Barker: No. but I’m a bit lucky at horse racing. I suggest you have been pretty lucky at. shopliflting.—Tha, r js wrong. You have accumulated much property and money lately?—Oh, no. How much money did Detective Gillam find under a. bed in your bedroom when he searched the house?— I don’t know. There was £219?—1 believe there was. Your wife earns £2* a week in a restaurant ? —Y es. And do you work? - -—No, I haven’t worked for a long /time. I am on sustenance. How long is it since you last worked?—A considerable time. How much have you been getting as sustenance? —£2 3s. You also draw money from the Returned Soldiers' Association, don't you?—Only small sums. Do you >hink you are enfitlfd to sustenance when over £2OO is found in your house and your wife is working? By the way, have you declared you have 'this money and that your wife works whin you sign your application form to receive sustenance? —No. What name do you sign in those declarations to receive sus;enance? — I have given my name as Sydney, but it is Stanley. That is what you gave to the police?—Yes. And what name do you put your wife down as?—As Mary. So you signed false declarations' then. You will probably hear more ibouit it. Her name is Mae Isohel,. That is what she is now charged under. Do you ask the court to believe you in preference to other witnesses? At th? conclusion of .the evidence, Ifter /the Alagisc ’ate had agreed to convict the accused on six charges. Mi-. Moody said neither of the accused had been in iron’?. 1 -? before. Mr. Wyvern VMsou said he was convinced that bo-c accused had hem largly supplemha’ing tbwr income oy shoplifting and that the male accused was a professional shoplifter. Mrs. Barker was sentenced to 14 days’ imprisonment and her husband :b one month’s imprisonment on the minor charges and io three months’ on /the major charges, the sentence® to be concurrent.