On Friday 22 September 1893 Richard Buttenshaw left the works around 10.30 am and shortly afterwards appeared at the Sheffield and Rotherham Bank on the High Street, as was his custom. There he drew out the cash for the men’s wages which totalled £760. The bank clerk Mr James Chislett asked him how he would like the money and he replied that he would take it all in gold as he had around £100 in silver to make up the remainder. As was usual the cash was paid to him without anyone suspecting anything irregular, and he placed in it a small leather bag. That was where his usual behaviour ended and he simply disappeared. Around 3.30 pm Mr Tozer himself wanted to speak to Richard and it was only at that point that his absence was noted.
When it became known that the cashier had not returned from his visit to the bank, it was suspected that he might have been attacked and robbed. The Rotherham Police force were notified, but no reports of any robbery had come to their attention. It was only after an examination of his books, that more large sums of money were found to be missing. A warrant for Richard Buttenshaw’s arrest was immediately issued. Enquiries soon established that far from being a victim, Richard had got on a train at the Rotherham Station on Westgate. There he had boarded one of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire trains for Doncaster which left at 11.42 am that day.
Telegrams giving his description and his crimes were dispatched to all the major cities and seaside towns and the police were issued with orders to look out for the wanted man. The local people of the town were absolutely stunned as this news circulated. Richard had been a person of good social standing in the town where he had been a well known figure. Railway men were questioned at various places and it was soon established that he had gone to the town of Ely in Cambridgeshire on the 1.40 pm train from Doncaster. Almost immediately the Chief Constable of Rotherham, Mr J Enwright spoke to the Ely Constabulary and photographs and a fuller description was given and distributed.
Meanwhile all other leads were followed up in an attempt to arrest the once familiar Rotherham figure. One such lead was that Richard had been spotted leaving from a port at Dover, but this was later found to be false. By Monday 25 September rumours were circulating in Rotherham that Richard Buttenshaw had been found in the Isle of Ely and identified. It was also established that he still had the larger part of £700 in his possession at the time he was arrested. A communication was sent by Mr Enright and arrangements were made for the prisoners return back to Rotherham. It appeared that Richard had been found at the Bell Hotel at Ely where he had given the name John Calvert and had indicated to the hotel staff that he was a gentleman of means.
In the meantime, he had spent a lot of time and money travelling to all the beauty spots in the area, hiring carriages to take him to all the different places. Richard had spent part of his time at the seaside town of Hunstanton and had also attended religious services in Ely Cathedral. It was also rumoured that he had impressed people at the Ely Conservative Club with his political opinions. Nevertheless despite his ‘respectable’ appearance, some suspicion had been aroused which had come to the attention of Ely police and they dispatched Sergeant Parker to investigate. He found the man purporting to be John Calvert sitting in the lounge of the Bell Hotel.
In the presence of the manager, the sergeant challenged him that he had assumed a name which was not his own. The man hotly denied it. Sergeant Parker told Richard that he would have to accompany him to the police station at Ely in order to prove his identity. At that point the man stated that he wanted to change his clothes and so the sergeant and himself went to the bedroom which he had recently occupied. Once there and in the absence of the manager, Richard admitted that he was the wanted man and he was arrested. He admitted his regret for the act of dishonesty which had led to him leaving Rotherham. As a result, two officers from the Rotherham police, Chief Clerk Baylis and Detective Sergeant Ross also travelled down to Cambridgeshire on Tuesday 10 October 1893.
Once there they took the prisoner into their custody from the Isle of Ely Police. When they read the warrant over to him, Richard made no reply. Then they escorted the prisoner to Ely station in order to catch the train back to Rotherham. They returned him back to the Central Station at Rotherham from where he had taken flight, eighteen days earlier. It was reported that at the time of his capture that Richard still had the sum of £695.9s.3d still in his possession. Richard James Buttenshaw was brought before the magistrates court the next morning, where he was found guilty and ordered to take his trial at the Autumn Assizes held at Leeds. The prisoner appeared there on Tuesday 5 December 1893 in front of judge, Mr Baron Pollock where he pleaded guilty to having stolen £760.
The prosecution Mr Ellison stated that the prisoner had been in a position of great trust within the firm of Steel, Peach and Tozer and that he had abused that trust when he robbed the company. He stated that after the prisoners disappearance from Rotherham, the cash books of the firm had been examined and other large sums of money had been missing. It was noted that in total over the last seventeen years a sum of £3,100 had vanished. Mr Ellison said that there has been a shortfall of £1,931 on one account, £226 missing from the accident club at the works and the hospital fund was short by £208 as well as £48 from the cash box.
The prisoners defence Mr Kershaw stated that it was hopeless to try to struggle against the charge against his client and added that this was an extremely sad case. The notoriety of the charge had fallen not only on the prisoner, but also on his wife and children. He asked the judge to forget the fact that these thefts had occurred over several years and to take all the different amounts and to deal with them as one charge. Mr Kershaw added that when a man gives way to dishonesty in such a way as the prisoner had, all the other acts follow in natural sequence. One fact purporting this theory was that the man had given way completely to drink and when arrested he was found to be in the early stages of delirium tremens.
The judge disagreed with him and stated that as far as he was concerned for seventeen years the prisoner had been consistently stealing from his employers. He had broken their trust and that of other people who had also been employed at the same firm. The judge told the prisoner that the sentence of the court was that he would be sent to prison for a term of six years. Richard Buttenshaw was then removed to the cells to begin his sentence.