COURT EXHIBIT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 223, 19 September 1940, Page 9

COURT EXHIBIT.

TORN BANKNOTE.

BURGLARY CHARGE DENIED.

WELLINGTON, Wednesday. A torn £3 note, alleged to have been part of the contents of a safe which had been blown open, figured ae an exhibit in the Magistrate's Court to-day, when James Bernard Lawless, a mechanic, aged 31, pleaded not guilty before Mr. J. L. Stout, 8.M., to a charge of breaking and entering the counting-house of Martin's Shoe Stores, Limited, Courtenay Place, and committing theft. The police alleged that the torn note was in accused's possession when be was accosted by a detective in Auckland.

Lawless, who wae not represented by counsel, was committed for trial at the next session of the Supreme Court in Wellington.

Senior-Detective P. Doyle prosecuted. Evidence was given that more than £100 in cheques, notes and silver wae taken.

Miss J. M. Irwin, cashier at the etore, eaid that on July 19 ehe handed the money to the secretary. Witness remembered a- torn £5 note being among the takings.

Detective A. Moore, of Auckland, said that on August 3 he saw accused in a Ponsonby-bound tramcar, and at hie request Lawless accompanied him to the Auckland detective office. Accused was searched, and £35 in bank notes and 17/2 in cash were found in hie possession. Included was the torn £5 note produced in Court. When asked where he had got this money, accused eaid he had had a bet on a horse ca'Hed Black Musk at the Rotorua races on the previous Monday. The horse paid £3 19/. Lawless told witness he had got the rest of the money working on the Wellington wharves.