Mexborough and Swinton Times May 5 1916

A Stolen Watch
Conisborough Man’s Offence

A young haulage hand, George William Godfrey, of Conisborough, was charged with stealing a watch belonging to William F Emms, a colliery road layer employed at the Yorkshire Main Colliery.

Miss Andrews prosecuted on behalf of the Colliery Company, and said there had been a series of thefts of that sort, they did not impute that the defendant was responsible, of course. But there had been a number of robberies from men’s clothing.

The prosecutor left is watching his waistcoat, which he hung up. It was missing the evening, and he reported it.

The man was seen by PC Powell, and at first denied the offence, but later admitted it. The watch was valued at five shillings.

The boy said he took the watch to see the time, took it back to hours later to find the waistcoat had gone.

He was fined 20 shillings.