MISTAKEN IDENTITY ALLEGED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 115, 28 February 1950, Page 5

MISTAKEN IDENTITY ALLEGED

DEFENCE ON FORGERY CHARGE CP.A.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Feb. 27. Mistaken identity was the defence raised by Claudia Mavis Richards, married woman, when she was charged in the Supreme Court in New Plymouth to-day with forging the endorsement to a cheque and causing it to he acted upon as genuine. The cheque was addressed to Ronqld Jack Roberts, of 20 Molesworth Street. Accused lives at 20 Hobson Street, the home of another and unrelated Roberts family, her parents. Other counts against Mrs Richards allege obtaining goods with the cheque’ by false pretences, stealing the cheque or receiving it, knowing it to have been dishonestly obtained. A shop assistant, Kevin Alfred Young, in evidence, identified accused as the woman who made a purchase with the cheque, and a bank accountant, Sydney William Cottier, expressed the'opinion that the writing on the back of the cheque was the same as that on documents bearing Mrs Richards’s handwriting.' Evidence for the defence was tliati accused was too ilf on the day in question to have left her home. Four Avitnesses gave evidence to that effect. The case, which 'is being heard before Mr Justice Smith, was adjourned until to-morroAV.