Robert Paterson - "An Extraordinary Theft of Groceries"

Together with his accomplices, Christopher Byres and Gordon Bruce, Robert Paterson was one of a trio of criminals who were involved in an "extraordinary theft of groceries" according to the Aberdeen Press & Journal of 22nd January 1892, and were tried for handling and reselling a vast quantity of stolen goods taken from the premises of William Davidson, a wholesale merchant, located on Castle Street, Aberdeen. The items in question were appropriated by a porter named William Jack, an employee of the wholesaler. Jack (who was tried separately) was in cahoots with Paterson and his partners, passing the goods to them and they in turn sold them on to other retailers in the city. A number of these retailers were called as witnesses at the trial and were all remarkably clueless as to why they had been offered goods by Paterson at such attractive prices.

The thefts from the wholesaler took place on multiple occasions between August 1890 and November 1891, comprising a mind-boggling array of items including 108 tins of corned beef, 84 tins of mustard, 84 tins of roast beef, 6 cwts rice, and 2 cwts semolina. Also among the items listed were 20 cwts Davie's lustre, and 7 cwts James's lustre, otherwise known as "black lead", used for treating and polishing domestic stoves. The value of the stolen goods equated to about £45,000 in today's money.

The wholesale merchant was not in the habit of undertaking an annual stock-check, and it was only when he did so that the missing items came to light. The origin of the stock was traced with the help of invoices and corresponding serial numbers. Indeed, a representative from the packing department of Colman's of Norwich appears as a witness at the trial to vouch for the origin of the large number of mustard tins!

The judge who presided at the trial was the no-nonsense and irritable Lord Young who took exception to applause in his courtroom following a speech from the  defence counsel, stating:

"It is not like the good sense which, according to my experience, prevails in Aberdeen. It is a silly noise, and the people of this town are not a silly people".

While Lord Young may not have regarded the people of Aberdeen as silly, he undoubtedly took a dim view of Robert Paterson and his partners in crime. In his summing-up, the judge mentioned that Paterson had previously been found guilty of a similar offence in which he "induced an employer's servant in a shop to rob his master". Paterson, Byres and Bruce were ultimately found guilty of reset rather than theft - reset being defined as the dishonest possession of goods obtained by another, by way of theft, robbery, fraud or embezzlement, in the knowledge that they were obtained that way. 

Paterson was sentenced to five years' penal servitude, of which he served about three-and-a-half years inside Peterhead Prison where his mugshot was taken on the 10th October 1895. His entry in the Register of Returned Convicts for Aberdeen, below, shows that on his release in November 1895 he lived at 9 Berry Street for a short while and then at 46 Broad Street for the next year.