PORTSMOUTH POLICE.
FRIDAY.—Before J. F. Pratt and J. McCheane, Esqrs.
…
AN OLD OFFENDER
Jonathan Bennett was charged with stealing a basket and a linen cloth, of the value of 5s., the property of Richard Budd.
The prosecutor is a carrier, living at Liss. On Tuesday last he came to Portsmouth with some butter, and on returning the basket, which he had received from Mr. Harrison, of Petersfield, was hanging on the back of his cart. He saw the basket when stopping at the ‟Green Post” at Hilsea, and when he stopped at the ‟George,” on Portsdown-hill, he found that it was gone. The prisoner offered the basket for sale to Joseph Jolliffe, a dealer, the same afternoon. The prisoner said it was his own, and that he bought it in Kent-street, but as he suspected that his statement was not correct, he sent for a policeman, and the prisoner was given into custody. When the prisoner was apprehended by P.C. Collins he persisted in saying that he bought the basket in Hanover-street on the 2nd of last month. Wehn at the station Collins found the cloth in the prisoner’s pocket, and the inspector asked him if it was marked? The prisoner said ‟Yes, ‛Wilkinson,’ and that is my name,” but there was no such mark on it, the only mark on it was ‟H., No. 1,” by which the prosecutor identified it.
The prisoner, who said he found the basket up on Portsdown-hill, was committed for trial at the sessions.