At this point, I was relieved to hear the sergeant's voice from behind his counter calling for silence. He told us we could all go, and went on to tell us that we would probably all receive summonses.  Sure enough, they weren't long in arriving.

On the day of the hearing, we all turned up in our best 'bib and tuckers'. Our parents were told to wait in another room, while we were lined up to stand before an enormous desk. Along the other side of the room police officers stood, bolt upright like fence posts behind the desk. Their side of the room was shrouded in shadow. Almost immediately, giggling broke out, and being rather slow to adjust to the sombre surroundings, I didn't know what the cause of such mirth was. Then my gaze fell upon a little, white, completely bald head, just visible above the surface of the desk. To make matters worse, loud sounds began emanating from the little head in a very low register, with facial mannerisms of such comic proportions, that hysterical laughter from the midget's young audience filled the courtroom. Next to me, stood Bunky Cripps, and next to him, Donnie. And every time the rest of us quietened down, these two would start the laughter up again and again. I felt we wouldn't have the last laugh, so I tried not to look sideways at Bunky anymore, who was again last to control the raspberry noises from his mouth. He was having great difficulty in holding in what wanted to come out. The bald head finally vented its anger in waves of moral indignation, ending with fines averaging around eight shillings and sixpence each. I now know the source of the iron bars imprisoning the magistrate's little garden.

On leaving the court at Caerphilly police station, and after conferring with one another about the financial penalties, the general opinion was that we had all been robbed, and to stop associating with so-and-so boy   as if we each had some secret innocence   and it was scrumping as usual.

I can't help but think that if it wasn't for other people's gardens and allotments during the war years, many of us kids would have grown up a lot leaner and a lot less healthy. Although thieving to allay hunger or malnutrition should not be regarded as justifiable, those responsible for imposing such political evils as mass economic deprivation commit the greatest crimes through the unjust distribution of a nation's wealth. When this is finally exposed on the Day of Judgement, those responsible will be irreconcilably caught;  particularly when this world has such an abundance of food to amply satisfy everyone's needs.

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