This week 60 years ago: Crooked stamp collector, caretaker ‘murdered’ at Brecknock printing works

A Holloway collector who stole stamps was told by a magistrate: “It doesn’t seem very nice to have a collection and every time you look at them to say: ‘Well, I stole that one.’”

A 39-year-old man from Dalmeny Avenue, Holloway, was fined £10 (the equivalent of about £220 today) after he admitted stealing five rare stamps from a market stall in Bethnal Green.

He told Thames Magistrates’ Court: “I don’t know what came over me. The stamps in question, I don’t save. They are King George V stamps and I only save Queen Elizabeth II stamps.”

Meanwhile, a caretaker died six days after being injured by intruders at the Brecknock printing works in Holloway.

A pathologist told Clerkenwell Magistrates’ Court how the victim had died from injuries to the brain due to a fractured skull.

Two males, aged 17 and 20, were remanded in custody after denying murder.