The break-up of the schools for the summer holidays had been marked by a revival of the juvenile crime which has of recent years become such a serious matter in Luton, and in a case which came before the Children's Court on Saturday [August 12th, 1916], Mr Edwin Oakley (presiding) said the Bench hardly knew how to deal with it.

Two lads named Frederick Arnold, aged 10, of 18 Maple Road, and Arthur Cunderton, aged 15, of 24 Maple Road, were charged with the theft of two boxes of chocolates valued at 4s 6d from a shop kept at 6 Leagrave Road by Mrs Lucy Firth, a widow carrying on business as a confectioner and tobacconist. The boxes of chocolate were on the counter for sale.

When Mrs Firth went into the shop to serve a customer on Thursday evening she noticed the two defendants and another boy playing about in front of the shop. Between half-past seven and eight o'clock she heard someone in the shop, and on going there found the boy Arnold, who asked her if she had any empty boxes to give him. She said she had not and the boy went out. Later in the evening Mrs Firth missed a one pound box and a half-pound box of chocolates.

In answer to Mr R. G. Tearle, who defended Arnold, Mrs Firth said she was sure he was one of the boys she saw and that she had not mistaken him for his younger brother.

The Chief Constable elicited from Mrs Firth that Mrs Arnold, the boy's mother, had since been to the shop and asked her questions. She wanted her to say that she had not seen the boy take any chocolates, but she refused to answer the questions.

Arnold's seven-year-old brother Frederick was called, and his story was only extracted with a good deal of difficulty and amid a profusions of tears. It was that he was playing outside the shop with his brother and Canderton, and his brother went into the shop for some empty boxes, but he did not see him bring out any chocolates.

Canderton fetched a small box of chocolates out of the shop, but he did not know Canderton had got them until he brought them out and shared them. The boy admitted, however, that when he participated in the chocolates he knew they had been stolen, and the Clerk told him it was a very wicked thing to do and he ought to be severely whipped.

Detective Bacon stated that when the loss of the chocolates was reported a description was given of the three boys who had been seen outside the shop it was stated that one had his right arm bandaged, and Arnold had a bandage on his arm when he stopped and questioned defendant.

They at first denied knowing anything about the chocolates, but afterwards Canderton said he and Arnold and another boy were outside the shop and Arnold went in and fetched out two boxes of chocolate which they shared out on the old football ground in Dunstable Road.

Arnold denied that he fetched the chocolates, stating that Canderton and a boy named White took them. White was afterwards found and taken to the police station, but he was released because while Arnold said he was there Canderton said he was not.

Canderton pleaded guilty, and his father said he would like the police to bring before the court the ringleader of this thieving business. He and his wife had both been to the police about it, and they had known it had been going on for 12 months.

On behalf of Arnold, Mr Tearle argued that it was a case of mistaken identity, and the lad's mother and married sister, Mrs Edith May Strong, who lives at 20 Maple Road, gave evidence that he was playing outside the house all the evening.

Canderton, it was stated, was before the court in August 1914 for stealing other things, and his father was then bound over. The Chief Constable suggested it would be a good thing if the boys could be sent away, and the father agreed.

The parents of Arnold were somewhat encouraging boys to do this sort of thing instead of checking them. The boy would have six strokes of the birch, and parents to pay the costs of 18s 6d. Canderton would go to a reformatory school until he was 18, and his father would have to contribute 2 shillings a week.

[The Luton Reporter: Monday, August 14th, 1916]