OSTEOPATH FINED £20 FOR DISPLAYING FALSE DIPLOMA

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28267, 3 May 1957, Page 15

OSTEOPATH FINED £20 FOR DISPLAYING FALSE DIPLOMA

David Parry Williams, aged 48, an osteopath, pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to three charges of forgery. These were that on November 1, 1955. he made a false document, a certificate or diploma purporting to show that he was conferred with the degree of doctor of chiropractic by the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Institute; that on October 1, 1956, he made a false document purporting to show that he was declared a doctor of osteopathy by the American College Chicago, and that on October 1’ 1956. he made a false document purporting to show that he was conferred with the degree of doctor of chiropractric by the Peerless College of Chiropractic, Chicago.

Mr F. F. Reid. S.M., convicted Williams on the first charge, fined him £2O, and dismissed the other two charges.

Senior-Detective G. C. Urquhart prosecuted, and Williams was represented by Mr E. P. Wills. The case for the prosecution as outlined by Senior-Detective Urquhart, was that Williams was in practice on his own account as an osteopath in Cathedral square. He took over this practice iff 1949 from a Mr Young, who was a chiropractor.

Certificates Photographed About November, 1955, Williams called at the home of a Mr Franzman, a photographer, and handed him a framed certificate purporting to show that Williams had been given the degree of doctor of chiropractic by the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Institute, said Senior -Detective Urquhart. The name of the accused had been superimposed on the space provided on the certificate for file name of the holder. Franzman had the certificate photographed by G.B.D. Prints, Ltd., and some days later handed the original and the photograph to Williams.

About the beginning of October. 1956, Williams again saw Franzman, and handed him two framed certificates to be photographed. One purported to show that Williams had been conferred with the degree of doctor of chiropractic by the Peerless College of Chiropractic Incorporated, Chicago, and the other that he was declared a doctor of osteopathy by the American College, Chicago. In both certificates Williams’s name had been inserted under the glass in the place provided for the name of the holder of the certificates. Franzman

again got G.B.D. Prints, Ltd., to photograph the certificates, and handed the framed originals and the photographs to Williams. Inquiries showed that the last two certificates had been issued to Frederick Arthur Coldicoft, who was formerly in practice as a chiropractor at Ashburton, and who died on August 5, 1956. Mr Caldicott attended colleges in America to obtain these diplomas, laid Senior-Detective Urquhart. Borrowed Diplomas

The evidence would show that Williams visited Mrs Caldicott at Ashburton about three weeks after her husband’s death and borrow’ed her husband’s diplomas, said Senior-Detective Urquhart. He tcld her he needed them to settle an argument about Mr Caldicott’s qualifications. Mrs Caldicott allowed Williams to take the diplomas away, and they were returned to her within a short period.

On November 1, 1956, DetectiveSergeant Tate and Detective Gillies saw Williams in his consulting rooms and asked him about his qualifications as a chiropractor. He said he was the holder of the diploma from the Peerless College and had attended a course of instruction at the college. Hewas told that the police had information that this certificate had been issued to Mr Caldicott, and he then admitted he had never been to America, said SeniorDetective Urquhart. The diploma from the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Institute was framed and hanging on a wall of his consulting room. Williams admitted that he held no such degree and that the certificate was a photographic copy of another person’s diploma with his own name inserted. He claimed that the original had been destroyed and he could not remember where he had obtained it. Williams also said that he took over the business from a man named Young who had qualifications. He said he had no qualifications of his own 'and he thought his patients might be helped psychologically if they saw such a certificate bearing his name and hanging in the consulting room. He said it had been there since Easter, 1956. Williams claimed that he had been issued with a diploma by the American University of Chicago but he had lost it. Letter To Police Williams wrote a letter to the police claiming that he had been issued with diplomas from both tiie Peerless and American Colleges. He was again interviewed on December 13 and he said he had obtained these diplomas many years ago but he had no proof now that he had ever held them. He said they had been destroyed

made co Pies from Mr Caldicott s certificates for sentimental reasons. He said he had not told the detectives this -on November 1 because he had been flustered and had forgotten. Senior-Detective Urquhart said that Williams also claimed that he had graduated from the Pennsylvania Institute in 1930. He said this diploma had also been partly destroyed and he had obtained a copy of another one from America. He said that from the two he had prepared enough material to make up a composite certificate. He admitted he had no proof that he had ever been issued with such a diploma from the Pennsylvania College. Evidence on those lines was given by Leonard Oliver Franzman, a photographer; Patricia McGilligan, a photograph copier; Edith Ruth Caldicott, a widow; Detective-Sergeant A. B. Tate; and Detective G. F. Gillies. Detective-Sergeant Tate said that Williams told him he treated up to 60 patients a day but he advanced no proof to support this. Inquiries showed that the Pennsylvania Institute, the American College and the Peerless College were long since defunct, about 1936. They were known as diploma mills. They were not now operating because of American laws. The copy of a Pennsylvania Institute diploma was hanging in Williams’s consulting room but the copies of the other two had never been framed or hung up. The framed certificate from the Smae Institute, England, was a photograph of an original.

The Defence Mr Wills said the defence was and the evidence would be that Williams held a diploma from each of these American colleges and one from an English college. The Magistrate said it was not a question of qualifications. The sole question was whether these were false documents. Williams, in evidence, said that in 1932 he took a correspondence course with the London College of Osteopathy and later took a correspondence course with the Smae Manipulative Therapeutics and Electrical Institute, of Surrey, England, passing examinations in anatomy, physiology and the principles of pathology, joint manipulations and osteopathy. He gained the diploma issued by the AngloAmerican Institute of Douglas Therapy, London. He took correspondence courses with the American University and Peerless College, which were the same thing, but different subjects, and got their doctorates of osteopathy and chiropractic. He also took a correspondence course in 1928 with the Pennsylvania Orthopaedic Institute and got its doctorate of chiropractic. Diploma Damaged Williams said he was told that the diploma was ' damaged in transit. The text books produced were those of the American University and the Peerless College, his diplomas having been accidentally destroyed. His name on the copy of the Pennsylvania certificate was taken from a partially destroyed certificate of his own and so were the seals. The certificate hanging in his rooms had been there since Easter, 1956. Before that it had been stowed away. He did not know it was illegal to haj/e the certificate hanging in his rooms. Williams said he held the doctorates of osteopathy in chiropractic'"from the American University and the Peerless College in 1928. The certificates were practically hopelessly destroyed. He wrote to the colleges, but the letter was returned, as they were out of existence then. Senior-Detective Urquhart: You have no real proof that you were ever issued with these certificates, have you. Williams said he had the text books produced in Court. Senior - Detective Urquhart called his attention to an insert of his name in one of the books and Williams said that had been done because there had been a large splash of ink on it. He must have qualified with the American colleges when he was 19. He did not intend to use the two copies of Mr Caldicott’s certificates in his consulting rooms. The Magistrate said he was not satisfied with the explanation given him by Williams. If in fact he did hold the qualifications he claimed to have, he would have expected Williams to have taken great care of his diplomas. He proposed to convict him on the charge regarding the Pennsylvania certificate. As far as the other two were concerned, Williams might have had the intention to use the copies, but he had made no move to frame them or display them. But the Pennsylvania one was hanging in what had ben described to the Court as his consulting rooms to impress patients. “I am prepared to accept that he acted more stupidly than anything else. He is more of a fool than a knave in this,” said the Magistrate.