THERE was no prevarication, just a simple admission.

“I’m a bad character,” Ernest Clarke freely acknowledged.

“Whatever punishment I receive, I deserve.”

Mr Justice Bucknill nodded but just as he was about to pronounce sentence, the painter made an extraordinary plea.

“Pass a lenient sentence, please” he urged. “I want to go to Canada.”

The judge demanded: “Why?”

Clarke explained: “Arrangements have been made for me to go there so I can leave this country and lead an honest life.”

The judge, noting his extensive antecedents for larceny and false pretences, sniffed: “That’s rather hard on Canada.”

The 28-year-old had admitted stealing a picture and a miniature vase from a woman in Southampton.

He also pleaded guilty to stealing clothing and jewellery from another in Andover, and conning the owner of pawn business into paying him £2 on the pretext it was his property to sell.

All, Hampshire Assizes heard in 1908, had happened just weeks after he had been released from his latest stretch behind bars.

However, there appeared to be some validity in his plea to the judge because a superintendent told the court that he had admitted other charges of fraud and theft in Bournemouth, offences which would have remained unsolved but for his confession.

The judge pondered for a few seconds before sentencing him to six months imprisonment with hard labour.