THE MODERN CRIMINAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 January 1920, Page 9

THE MODERN CRIMINAL.

In the dock at the Central Criminal Court one frequently sees the latest fashions in men's and women's wear, says a Daily Mail's correspondent. It

is a sign of the times. Twenty years ago the average criminal was ill-educated, ili-mannered, and slovenly iu appearance. To-day many thieves, men and women, are intelligent, punctilious in behaviour, and dressed in the height of fashion. Recently a notorious West End sharper, confident that the jury would acquit him, ordered his motor-ear to be ready to take him home! It was a sad blow to his dignity and prestige when someone else ordered 11 lack Maria for him. The modern criminal who infests the West End craves for the best of everything. He dines in the best restaurants, drinks the most expensive wines, smokes the choicest cigars, and makes love to pretty women. His clothes are .faultless in material and style.

And the women "crooks" are just as fastidious. Parisian gowns cover them; Tare jewels adorn them; sparkling eyes and a ready wit carry them ■anywhere. Thev all spend money «s freely as a war profiteer. One woman—a clever jewel thief—appeared in the "dock wearing a dress for which she paid TO guineas. Her £3OO fur eoat had "been stolen, otherwise no ctouht she ■"would have worn that in court. Thieve-; have been making enormous profits. Furs, cloth, cigars,, and! Jewels 11 tfco the value of hundreds of thousand's <of pounds have been stolen (timing thej -presertt year, and thev have been boM I again at practically their full market "value-. Receivers—the people to whom fthleyes dispose of their booty»~w;ilßiigI tv" pay high prices for alt Iti'nd's of wearing apparet because, although vast , quantities haKe been recovered by iliel police, the risk- of detection- i;s compara- : ttvefy small, awl there ij? always a generous Tetjurn of the money expended. ( Motor-cars, of which many hundreds i haw d&Sappeaijed!,. haive also, % ready safe, 1 font there is a. gmter- danger- i'n dealing wMI- then),, aifcj s»3eq,uently the- thieves g<*t ft fo^th: