Looking back at October 20, 1949
An invalid pensioner was sentenced to three months jail for begging.
A second man was sent to jail for seven days over the same offence.
Read more: Sewage flows in Russell Vale streets in 1950
Invalid pensioner Thomas Lionel O'Keefe and George Bertram Kennedy appeared before the Wollongong Court of Petty Sessions charged with begging in Harbour Street, Wollongong.
Detective RC Fleming said he saw the men going from house to house and begging.
They also stopped several people in the street and asked for money. He said he heard O'Keefe ask a woman "have you got the price of a feed?".
Kennedy had come from Queensland eight weeks ago, O'Keefe a month earlier.
Both men were homeless and had been drinking methylated spirits, the court heard.
The court heard 40-year-old O'Keefe had 53 previous convictions, many of them for begging.
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Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
