The culmination to the case came on 22 November when the engine house of Messrs Newsome’s timber merchants of Forge Lane, Masborough was broken into and several expensive engine brasses were stolen. Three days later the company suffered a second loss, when the same gang broke in again and stole several other items of value including thirty-seven dozen files. To add insult to injury Mr Newsome found to his annoyance, that the thieves had also taken a woollen scarf which had belonging to him which he had left in the office. The same night a tailors shop at Thornhill, Masborough belonging to Mr Francis Birkenshaw was also broken into and several unfinished garments were stolen.
These items consisted of fourteen coats, twenty vests, a quantity of cloth pieces and three pairs of trousers all in various stages of repair. The Rotherham police authorities had by now enough evidence and were determined that this gang needed to be caught. Therefore local police constables about to start on their rounds were ordered to be vigilant by their sergeant, as he told them that these thieves obviously knew the area well. Accordingly, when Police Constable Mitchell arrested a twenty-five year old man named William Mumford on Saturday 26 November, he had no idea that he had finally broken the case.
The man had been charged with stealing two fowls from the Plough Inn on Greasborough Lane, Rotherham, and when searched he was found to be wearing the same scarf which had been stolen from the office at Mr Newsome’s timber yard. Sergeant McVeitty’s own vigilance was also rewarded the following day when he too arrested three men he had apprehended at Whiston. He had met them carrying bundles and when stopped and searched, found many of the stolen items from Birkenshaw’s tailors shop at Thornhill. Not only that, but when the men were being placed in cells at the station, underneath their shirts were several of the unfinished garments which had also been taken.
When arrested, the three men, twenty-five year old William Smith, eighteen-year old Henry Moore and twenty-six year old George Sanson claimed they were on their way to Birmingham seeking work. Having been found with stolen items on their persons, the men had little option but to soon co-operate with the police. As a result of this, Inspector Horne and Sergeants McVeitty and Lee went to search the house where the men had been staying. It was a house in a rather secluded part of Rotherham known as ‘Amen Corner’ just off College Road. There they were rewarded by discovering a large quantity of stolen items from shops in Rotherham and Masborough.
A woman claiming to be Smiths wife Eliza, who was also in the house was found to have a number of pawn tickets on her. She too was arrested and charged with being an accomplice. A further examination of the prisoners resulted in Superintendent Gillett and Inspector Horne going to Masborough Railway Station. There they found a large box in the goods shed which had been left on Saturday evening and was addressed to ‘William Smith, Lawley Street Station, Birmingham.’ It was therefore deduced that the three men apprehended by Sergeant McVeitty at Whiston on 26 November had been on their way to Birmingham to collect this very box.
The inspector tried to lift it, but it proved to be so heavy that it had to be removed to the police station in a cab. Although the box had been nailed shut, it was soon opened and was found to contain the greater portion of the stock of unfinished items from the tailor shop at Thornhill. Also, underneath the unfinished clothing were the twenty seven dozen new files stolen from Newsome’s timber yard. Mr Newsome himself identified them as being a portion of the thirty five dozen stolen on 22 November. At a second search of the house on Amen Corner, a large quantity of house breaking implements had also been found. Accordingly, once again the three prisoner were brought before the Rotherham magistrates on Monday 28 November and were remanded to Thursday 1 December.
In court once again the magistrates heard that the box, which had been found to contain the stolen items, had been bought from Mr Lodge a grocer at Masborough by the prisoner Mumford and another man. The bench also looked into the case against Eliza Smith, but as she was deemed to be under the charge and influence of her husband, she was simply discharged. All the other prisoners were sent to take their trial at the next Sessions. Accordingly, all four prisoners appeared at the Sheffield Sessions, held at the Town Hall, Sheffield on Saturday 7 January 1871.
William Smith, Henry Moore, George Sanson and William Mumford were all charged with breaking into the tailors shop of Francis Birkenshaw and stealing the unfinished garments on 22 November. Mr Blackburn and Mr Atkinson prosecuted the case against the prisoners. As a result, Mumford who had twice previously been convicted of similar crimes was sentenced to two years imprisonment. Smith, who only had one previous conviction against him, received a sentence of 12 months imprisonment and Moore and Sanson received sentences of six months each.