Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 27 February 1903
Begging Offence at Doncaster
On Monday, at the Doncaster Police Court, Elizabeth Wain, 13 years of age, was charged with begging at Wheatley on the previous Saturday afternoon, and the mother, Sarah Ann Wain, wife of a Denaby miner, on strike, was charged with causing her daughter to beg.
Supt. Blake said the girl was seen by the police at Wheatley. She got off the tram carrying a three months-old baby in a basket. She went to two houses. The constable asked her what she was doing, and she said she was selling papers. He went to the houses where she had been, and they said she had been begging.
Evidence having been given by the police, the elder defendant went into the witness box, and stated that she did not send the child out begging. In reply to Mr. Cliffe she admitted that her daughter took home 10s. Her daughter sold papers. Her husband was receiving 21s. per week strike pay. They had sent their furniture to Staffordshire, and intended to go themselves.
Mr. Laughton, the chairman, said the defendant had rendered herself liable to a penalty of £25 or three months’ imprisonment, but the magistrates were disposed to take a lenient view, and fined her 2s. 6d. and 4s. costs.