Police Constable Turner was informed that the suspect was a man called George Johnson, who described himself as a sailor from Newcastle. The officer was then informed that yet another lodging house robbery had been found and he was dispatched to an address at Mexborough to make enquiries. It seems that Johnson had been busy once more. Once again he had been lodging at the house, when several items from some of the other lodgers at the house had again gone missing. These included a purse and a gold pin, as well as some items of clothing including a suit and pants. Needless to say, by the time PC Turner arrived at Mexborough, the suspect Johnson had decamped with his booty.

However then PC Turner was given a break. He was told that a man fitting Johnson description had been seen travelling on the road from Rotherham to Swinton. Turner rightfully deduced that Johnson might be in need of ready cash and would have to dispose of some of his stolen items. So he went to a well known pawn broker and jeweller’s shop in Mexborough where, to his great surprise, he actually found Johnson there. As he had surmised he was trying to dispose of some of his ill-gotten gains and the officer noted that he was also wearing some of the stolen clothes. Johnson was arrested and brought back to Rotherham police station.

Once at the station, Detective Inspector Thompson of the Sheffield police force was sent for. Having hearing of Johnson’s capture, he guessed that he might be the same man who had committed similar lodging house thefts at various places in Sheffield. It appeared that Johnson had an interesting methodology. On Monday 30 December he had gone to a lodging house in Clarence Street, Wath run by a woman called Mrs Louisa Ellis. As was his habit, he had told her that he was a traveller in the jewellery trade and was seeking respectable lodgings. Johnson explained his lack of luggage on the fact that he had left them at the railway station earlier in the day although the luggage office was now closed.

As it was late in the evening, Mrs Ellis took pity on him and allowed him to lodge in a room of the house. Johnson told her that he was intending to collect his luggage the following morning. However, once again the landlady, as had others before her badly misled. By the next morning she found that her lodger had not only absconded, but once again had also been in other lodgers rooms and stolen several articles. On the following evening, Johnson repeated this method at the lodging house of a Mr George Stevenson of Baldwin Street, Attercliffe, Sheffield. Once again asked for lodgings, claiming his luggage was still at the station.

Like Mrs Ellis, Mrs Stevenson also felt sorry for the man and allowed him to stay at her house overnight. However, her trust too was severely misplaced as at 6 am the following Wednesday morning her lodger had de-camped once again. This time his haul had included five pocket knives, a suit of clothes, several waistcoats and a pairs of boots, along with a silver lever watch. These articles were later recovered from several pawn shops at Attercliffe by Detective Inspector Thompson.

Mrs Stevenson also accompanied the detective to Rotherham where she identified the arrested man, now in the cells, as the same man who had robbed her lodging house. Accordingly, George Johnson was brought before the Rotherham magistrates on Monday 5 January where Police Constable Turner told the bench that the prisoner was still being investigated for other thefts. The bench stated that great credit was due to PC Turner and Detective Thompson for the way in which they had tracked the prisoner. Accordingly he was remanded for another week.

However the case against Johnson was still not complete, as when he next appeared in front of the Rotherham magistrates the following week, a further case of robbery was heard from a Mrs Hume of Mexborough. Needless to say, Johnson was found guilty by the bench and ordered to take his trial at the next Assizes. The case was heard on Thursday 12 March at Leeds in front of judge Mr Justice A L Smith. After hearing all the evidence the grand jury returned with a verdict of guilty and George Johnson was sentenced to five years imprisonment for his part in the lodging house robberies.