Sheffield Independent – Tuesday 18 April 1893

The Robberies At A Wombwell Co-Operative Store

Yesterday, at the Barnsley Court House, before Messrs. C. Brady and T. Dymond, a youth named George Brown, aged 17 years, of Doncaster-road, Conisbro’, pleaded guilty to a series of till robberies at the grocery store of the Barnsley British Co-operative Society, at Wombwell, where he was employed as an assistant.

The particular offence with which the prisoner was charged was with having stolen 13s. from the drawer, on Saturday night, the 8th inst., the property of Jim Turner, the manager. On the night of the 8th inst., the prosecutor caught the prisoner in the act of taking money out of the drawer, and prisoner produced 13s. from his pocket which he had taken. Mr. Hurst, the manager of the other store, came in, and the prisoner in their presence confessed to the theft, and also to having taken money on previous occasions. Subsequently the prisoner had written out a list of sums of money which he admitted having taken, amounting to £13 0s. 6d.

For the defence Mr. Hickmott admitted the facts. He read a large number of characters, showing that the lad had hitherto borne an irreproachable character. The lad’s position was the result of reading “penny dreadfuls,” detective stories, and the like. The prisoner was bound in his own recognisances in £10 (and his father in £10) to be of good behaviour for six months.