Stealing an overcoat

Hertford Borough Sessions

Henry Sturge, a labourer, of no fixed abode, was charged with stealing an overcoat, the property of Messrs S Neale & Son, of Fore Street, on December 4th.

Frederick Thomas Pryor, shopman at Messrs Neale’s, identified the coat, and valued it at 19s 6d. In the afternoon he noticed it buttoned on a figure which was standing in the doorway, but at 6 o’clock it was not there.

P.C. Clements said that about 6.15 p.m. he was near the Town Hall when he saw the prisoner with the coat under his arm. He asked him where he had got it from, and he said he had taken it from a tailor’s shop. Witness took possession of the garment and saw from a ticket  that it belonged to Messrs Neale.

Prisoner pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment.