Larceny by a trick

At Cheshunt Petty Sessions Rose Bond (18), of Britannia Dwellings, City Road, no occupation, was charged with stealing by means of a trick from the Enfield Highway Co-operative Society.  Ivy Smith, an assistant at the Cheshunt branch of the Enfield Highway Co-operative Society, said that on August 27 at 1.30 p.m. the prisoner came into the shop and said: ‘Can I take the order of Mrs Buckley, of Ferncroft, Church Lane ?’  The witness fetched the goods, and then the prisoner said she would like to take a few more things as Mrs Buckley had got company come unexpectedly.  She also said: ‘Have you any cake ?’  The witness replied ‘No’ and the prisoner then chose some biscuits.  She then took the goods away and their value was 7s. 5½d.  The witness at the time believed the girl’s story that she had come from Mrs Buckley’s.  Detective Sergt. Childs stated that he saw the prisoner detained at the Police Station on August 28.  He told her she would be charged with stealing the goods mentioned by means of a trick, and she replied: ‘Yes, I am very sorry, I did it because I was hungry.  You will find what I haven’t eaten at my lodgings, Prospect House, Blindman’s Lane.  He went to that address and found the whole of the property produced in the girl’s room, and in the fireplace he found Mrs Buckley’s book.

She told him she went to Mrs Buckley’s house on the 27th, and asked for Mrs Hogge, and was told Mrs Buckley lived there.  PC Fulbrook deposed to arresting the prisoner at 12.15 p.m. on August 28 at the Co-operative Stores, where she had been detained by the manager.  The prisoner pleaded guilty.  Her father said she came to Cheshunt to work, and he could not understand her action.  PC Wisbey said he knew the girl and her parents, and they were very respectable people.  The Chairman said the Bench would give the girl a chance, and she would be bound over in the sum of 40 shillings for the next twelve months; her mother also to be a surety.