Crime at the English Sewing Cotton Company #2

Times were hard in the immediate post war period, and when temptations presented themselves….

Craven Herald and Pioneer - Friday 1st November 1946.

JEL, Labourer, East Preston, Littlehampton, was fined £2 and ordered to pay 6s costs for the theft of 47 reels of Sylko, one cop of Sylko machine twist and 10lbs of warp yarn from the Skipton mill of the English Sewing Cotton Company.

Defendant pleaded “Guilty.”

Inspector Knapton said JEL had obtained employment at Belle View Mills, Skipton, as a labourer on February 6, but he had left the firm on his own account on October 5. The previous day, detective officer Adams and police constable Rowling had visited the defendant's house where they found an unbleached type of glace. When asked where he had got it, JEL replied, “I found it in a case: it was going to be burned.” He then showed them a packing case containing among other items, 2 reels of warp yarn and 46 reels of Sylko, which he said had been stolen from the mill. Told he would have to be reported, JEL said “I have been a fool”.

JEL, who said he served 14 years in the Army as a regular soldier, told the magistrates that he had taken the goods to make a rug.

Craven Herald and Pioneer, Friday 2nd November 1945.

IL of Skipton, who is employed as a polisher at the English Sewing Cotton Company's Belle View Mills, Skipton, was fined £3 for the theft, as servant, of a quality of bobbins of thread.

EA of Skipton was fined £2 for receiving a quantity of thread well knowing it to have been stolen. IL pleaded “guilty” and EA pleaded “not guilty”.

Superintendent Parkinson stated that D.O. Adams saw IL at 6.30 on Wednesday, October 3 about the matter, and she said “yes, I have had a few”. She added that she sold them at 2 shillings a bobbin to EA, and also said, “I am not the only one”. At 7:15 PM the same day, D.O. Adams saw EA, and he found the fire grate crammed full of bobbins of thread, which were half burnt. EA also handed over some crocheted mats, curtains, etc, which she had made with the thread. She said she thought it was waste material. Both defendants made voluntary statements and IL said that EA had told her not to get herself caught. EA in a statement said that she knew IL worked at the mill and thought it was waste thread she was selling her. She warned IL to be careful because she did not want her to get into trouble for doing so much bad work. The thread taken by IL was valued at £2, 6s, 8d.

Miss C M Bishop represented EA, who said she had had 13 bobbins of cotton from IL for which she had paid 26 shillings. She thought it was waste thread and was under the impression that the work people were allowed to take it away. On October 3 a little girl from IL's warned her that a policeman was coming, and she was flustered and unthinkingly put the bobbins of thread on the fire. She was 62 years of age and had never been in any kind of trouble before.  

Miss Bishop said that EA was summoned for having received goods well knowing them to have been stolen and she submitted that sufficient proof had not been put forward to show the defendant really did know that they had been stolen. When she bought them she was told they were spoilt and to her they looked spoilt. She used the cotton for making curtains, etc. and hung them in the house quite openly.