CREDIT BY FRAUD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 61, 10 April 1946, Page 5

CREDIT BY FRAUD

YOUNG MAORI SENTENCED SIXTY MILES BY TAXI Unable to pay the fare, for a taxi which he hired in Tauranga to bring him to Whakatane on March 31, Ronald Hudson, a Maori youth aged 19 years appeared in the Whakatane Court on Tuesday before Messrs. G. A. Brabant and J. King J.P.s, charged with obtaining credit by fraud. Accused who pleaded guilty incurred the debt in question, which amounted to £5 with Leslie Gordon Wadsworth, a

taxi driver of Tauranga. Sergeant Farrell stated that accused was a stranger to the district. He had arrived in Tauranga from Taranaki, where he had been employed as a dairy factory hand, shortly before the race meeting where he had spent most of his money. He approached Mrs Wadsworth, and giving the name of Robinson, asked him to take him to Whakatane. Accused stated that his father had sent for him, and would pay the fare. When they arrived at Whakatane, accused directed the driver to several places in the town, and then entered the local taxi office, without the knowledge of Mr Wadsworth, in an effort to hire a taxi to take him to Opotiki. The police in Opotiki had been contacted in an effort to trace some relatives of accused, and they had managed to find someone who was willing to meet the debt of £5. Accused, so far as was known, bore a good character; he had already spend a week in gaol on remand.

In consideration of the fact that the money was forthcoming, the Bench sentenced accused to a further week in the local gaol, at the same time warning him that in future he should endeavour to keep out of trouble, and that if he were convicted again, the penalty would be much heavier.