Cat burglar’s lament saves him from lengthy jail term at Preston Police Court

At the Preston Police Court in early March 1931 the magistrates heard an account of an alleged cat burglary Peter Nickson, aged 23, from Blackpool. Nickson was charged with breaking into a jeweller’s shop on Orchard Street early on the previous Wednesday morning.

P.C. Starkey told the court that he was passing the Orchard Street shop of jeweller Ernest Scanlan at about 2 o’clock in the morning, when he heard the sound of splintering wood.

Going to the rear of the premises he was about to enter the yard where a wooden staircase led to a back door and shining his torch he saw just beyond the staircase the shadowy figure of a man with a iron bar in his hand. He shouted to him to come out, but there was no reply. Immediately he ran back into Orchard Street and blew his whistle. Inspector Ashworth and several constables responded to the call, and they surrounded the shop.

P.C. Starkey then returned to the rear and as he climbed up the staircase a man poked his head out of a window in the attic. He shouted to him to come down, but he replied that he would make a run for it.

The court then heard from P.C. Back who stated that he had got into the shop from the front and entering the attic he flashed his torch and saw the accused crouching behind a joist. A bit of a tussle had then taken place with the constable overpowering the accused and slipping the handcuffs on. He then was lowered through the attic opening to another constable and being marched to the Earl Street police station.

Nickson declined to make any statement before the magistrates and was told he would be remanded in custody to await his trial at the next Preston Sessions in mid-April. Those Sessions were held before Sir James Openshaw and Nickson pleaded guilty to the Orchard Street raid and also to another offence of breaking and entry of a lock-up shop in Friargate.

Details of his Orchard Street escapade were detailed by the prosecution and then Nickson made a plea for leniency from the dock. He said he had tried hard to get employment tramping from town to town for months. He had come to Preston to sign on the dole but his claim had been rejected, as had his attempt to join the Army.

Then in a tearful plea he said he had had to look out for himself for 12 years, and that if he got another chance he would never get into trouble again.

The chairman, after a brief discuss with the other magistrates, then told Nickson that he had come very close to receiving a substantial prison sentence, but it had been decided to take him at his word.

Therefore, he would be released from custody having served the time prior to the Preston Sessions, although he was being released with a warning that any future transgression would lead to a long prison sentence.

As the April 1931 Preston County Sessions ended Judge Openshaw invited the Grand Jury on the traditional tour of Preston Prison, telling them they would be the last to do so as the prison was about to close. Prison capacity elsewhere in the county being sufficient to accommodate those held in Preston.

During the Second World War the prison became a Civil Defence store and by September 1942 it had become a Royal Navy detention centre. A role it would fill until January 1947, housing more than 9,000 naval offenders during that period.

In March 1948 it was announced it would reopen again as a civilian prison. The Prison Commissioners took over the premises as a surge in crime had filled other prisons in the area.