The Windsor and Eton Express gives a description of his crime as follows:
Windsor and Eton Express - Sunday 12 July 1818 p. 3-4
County Assizes
Berkshire. - These assizes commenced at Abingdon on Monday last. ... Mary Sims, aged 23, single woman, charged with feloniously stealing, on the 24th of June, at the parish of Thatcham, 37 promissory notes, of the value of £73, the property of Joseph May. - Two years imprisonment to hard labour.
John Suffolk, aged 35, cheesemonger, charged with having, on the 25th day of June, at the parish of Thatcham, received and had the same promissory notes, knowing the same to have been so feloniously stolen by the said Mary Sims. - Transported for 14 years.(Retrieved from http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/)
It's interesting the receiving of stolen goods had a harsher penalty than stealing the promissory notes, but hard labour wouldn't have been a picnic either and John seems to have done alright in the colony.
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