Three months' hard labour for stealing £1
Today (Wednesday) at the Borough Police Court, George Kennett (26) waiter, 4 Hoxton Road and Thomas White (25), barman, 3 Atlas-place were charged on remand with having stolen £1 from No 31, Londesborough road, the property of Eleanor Ann Leake on June 25th. The defendants had been remanded.
It was alleged that they went into the restaurant at 31 Londesborough Road where Kennett had been employed. Kennett went upstairs, and shouted to White. "Have you seen this room". White did not go upstairs and later they went out, a sovereign then being missing from a box.
Kennett tendered a sovereign for a cake at a shop in Victoria-road, and later gave the woman he lived with 8s. The Chief constable added that Kennett had been allowed out in the reception room and he had said to a constable: It is a shame White has been locked up for what he did not do – although he got his share.
Kennett: It is a lie, and I object to that as evidence.
The Clerk: Well, it isn't evidence against White.
The Chief: He also added that a lie had been told about getting the door opened because 'he opened it with a key from the next bedroom'. That key, added the Chief, had been tried in the door, and it opened the lock.
Eleanor Ann Leake gave evidence.
By Kennett: She said that she had to get the plumber or joiner to open the door. He did not find it open.
An assistant named Brown said no one but Kennett had entered the room on the day in question.
The woman who lives with Kennett, as his wife, said he went out on the day in question at about 3.30, and returned at about 4.30. He gave 8s and on her asking where he got it, he replied 'Oh I have borrowed it'. He also brought some bread and butter. She gave the 8s to the landlady for the room.
At this stage the Chief Constable withdrew the charge against White, and he was discharged.
P.C. Beach said when he was searching Kennett in the police station yard he said he was not going to tell anyone how he got the sovereign, but he did get it. He said, later, that the key of the next room fitted it, and it was a shame that White had been locked up.
Prisoner objected to the evidence and said that it was unreliable.
He called White as witness, the latter stating that Kennett changed half a sovereign, not a sovereign at the bread shop.
Kennett: And you lent me half a sovereign? – Yes.
By the Chief: The sovereign was changed earlier in the day – before going to the restaurant. He admitted that he did not lend Kennett half a sovereign.
The Chief: I did not ask any more after that.
Kennett said that the evidence was all mixed up, and he should be given the benefit of the doubt. Money should be marked before there was anything against the prisoner. (laughter)
There were fifteen previous convictions for various offences against Kennett, and was sent to prison for three months with hard labour.
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Weather for Scarborough
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 18 C
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