Good work, Godfrey !

Hertfordshire Mercury, 9th January 1931

Transcript

Before the Deputy Chairman , Mr Robert Herbert Brent-Grotrion , K.C.

Arthur Martin (20) , a fitter’s mate and William Reed (20), a motor fitter , committed from Ware , on December 16 , were charged with : (1) stealing a motor-car , the property of Jean Dorothy Grinling , at St John’s Wood , on December 13 ; (2) being possession of house-breaking implements, and (3), stealing a door key . Prisoners pleaded guilty to stealing the car , but not guilty to the other two charges .

The Chairman said that as the men had pleaded guilty to stealing the car , and as one man was out on licence from Borstal, was it worth while proceeding with the other cases ?

Mr Frederick Levy , prosecuting , said he was instructed not to proceed with the other two cases , and he asked that they remain on the file , and they would not at any time be proceeded with without permission of the court . Proceeding , Mr Levy told of the car being stolen when it had been left outside a house in Marlborough Street , London . At 2.30 a.m. , the next morning , P.c. Godfrey , of Stanstead Abbotts , who seemed to have been very vigilant , saw the two men and they told him they wanted some petrol for their car ,  which was up the road . The Constable went with them to the place where they said the car had been left , but there was not a car there . Further up the road a car was found , and prisoners said it did not belong to them . The Constable took them to the police cottage , where they were searched , and a bunch of keys and other things were found upon them .

Superintendent H. Wright said there was no previous conviction against Reed . Martin had been bound over at the Middlesex Sessions and sent to a Borstal Institution for three years .

Mr Spicer , who was briefed from the dock , said that so far as Reed was concerned there was no doubt he had borne a good character . The man was the sole support of his mother .

Major Noakes , also briefed from the dock by Martin , said prisoners had no idea what they were going to do with the car , except they were going to return it .

Reed was bound over for 12 months , and Martin was ordered to be detained in prison for 14 days , and the Court would recommend that his licence allowing him out of Borstal be revoked , and that he be sent back to Borstal .

The Chairman remarked that the policeman ( P.c. Godfrey ) , behaved in a smart manner .

 

 

 

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