The curious case of a kleptomaniac - True Crime

Indeed, when she was finally caught, Lloyd did not reveal their whereabouts. Instead, she personally sent the gems to them.

Not surprisingly, Mr Temple-Cooke, one of the Western Circuit’s most experienced barristers, could only comment: “This case is a remarkable one. This young woman is one of the most expert thieves one could possibly imagine.”

Of that, there was no dispute. But had she finally mended her ways, or was her co-operation merely a clever charade to lighten the inevitable jail term?

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Neatly dressed in a blue serge suit, with a light blue hat tied with a matching-coloured scarf, Lloyd, 26, sat nonchalantly in the dock at Hampshire Quarter Sessions in 1910 when she confessed to three charges of theft on the Isle of Wight.

Lloyd’s modus operandi was to enter high class firms in Bond Street and Regent Street, London, on the pretence of making a purchase. While studying some items, she told the unsuspecting male assistant she wanted to look at others. When he turned his back to bring out other stock, Lloyd artfully slipped the original pieces into her clothing and left.

To underline the scale of her thieving, Temple-Cooke produced a long list of shops in the West End on which she had preyed, taking valuables together valued at almost £650.

Lloyd was finally caught after booking a room at a prestigious hotel in Cowes to attend the Island’s famous yachting regatta, and befriending a titled lady, she was able to gain entry to the Royal Yacht Squadron. In between races, she went to Ryde where she stole from two shops but was foiled on a third occasion and arrested.

Granted bail, she went home and had delivered to police most of the stolen jewellery which was identified and priced. “She had not sold or raised money on any of the things she had taken, though she had given some away as presents.”

S H Emanuel, defending, said Lloyd had saved all her earnings while working for an invalided woman who had total confidence in her and had never missed a single item from her house.

“Except for her confession to the Chief Constable, possibly the police would never have found out about the other things. I have tried to find out from her what led to do this and the answer was ‘I like to see pretty things.’ When I suggested to her there were pretty things where she as living, she replied: ‘I can see them without taking them.’ She has a desire to have pretty things about her without the means for paying for them. In a number of cases, she had the means of paying, and when she got the things, she did not care for them.”

But as the chairman R A Bayford KC pointed out, this was not the first occasion she had appeared in court for theft. “She has pursued this course since 1901.”

Emanuel accepted she had a record. “Indeed, that is so but this is the first time she has shown contrition and her employer is willing to take her back.”

However, Tunbridge Wells-based detective John Kingston was sceptical she was on the road to redemption.

Lloyd, he revealed, had been bound over for theft of money in 1901. In 1906, she had been similarly sentenced over the taking of three books and the following year she received three months hard labour for five charges at Maidstone. “There were six other others not gone into. She was employed as a nurse at Tunbridge Wells and in her bedroom were found items stolen from various tradesmen in the town. She is a cool, clever and daring thief.”

The chairman was in part perplexed about her behaviour. “What your motive was for in stealing this valuable large number of valuables is difficult to fathom. Your counsel has taken a great deal of trouble to get an explanation but he has been unable to offer any reasonable suggestion for what you did. Whatever reason you acted upon, the fact remains that your acts of stealing were deliberately and carefully planned and more skilfully executed. You have brought a great deal of cleverness to bear on the acts you committed. One cannot think it was not sudden impulse.”

In an acknowledgement to her past, Lloyd implored the court to be lenient: “I know what prison is likely and that’s why I gave the other things back.”

But the judge still remained unmoved. “It is in the public’s and your interest that a substantial sentence must be imposed. I hope you will be amenable to the good influences during that period and when you come out, you will lead a different life.”

On hearing the sentence, Lloyd left the dock smiling.