ALLEGED FALSE PRETENCES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 309, 25 September 1919, Page 10

ALLEGED FALSE PRETENCES

MAN AND WIFE CHARGED,

An unusual type of case camc up for hearing before the Magistrate's Court yesterday, when an aged couple were arraigned to answer a charge of false pretences, Tho defendants wero Catherine and Henry Richard Bret"., and tho charge was that on September 29, 1918, at Wellington, by means of a certain false pretence, to wit, representing that a piano was free of all claims and their property, whereas tho sum of .£2O was owing on the instrument to Laidlaw and Gi'ay, Ltd., Dunedin, did obtain tho sum of X 32 from Alexander Lorimer Wilson with intent to defraud.

Messrs. I. Salek and J. W. Ellison. J.IVs were 011 llie bench. Sub-Inspector Emerson prosecuted, and Mr. G. Hellish defended.

Sub-Inspector Emerson, in outlining tho facts of tho case, said that some time in 190S the defendants purchased a piano, on the hire-purchase system from Messrs. Laidlaw and Gray, Ltd., of Dunedin. Tho price agreed upon was -CO2, and tho defendants made payments from time to time up till 1017. In Septem. ber, 1918, there was something like .£lB or ,£l9 still owing on the instrument, and on September 29 of that year the defendants communicated iri'th A. L. Wilson, auctioneer, with a view to sell, ing tho piano. At the time the defon. dants gave Mr. Wilson to under,stand that tho piano was their own property, and Mr. Wilson purchased tho instrument for ,£32. A cheque for this amount was p.aid to the defendant Mrs. Brett. Mr. Wilson subsequently resold tho piano, when it was discovered that it was the property of Laidlaw and Gray, Ltd.

Alfred Ilowarth, secretarr to Messrs. Laidlaw and Gray, Ltd., said that on April 23, 1908, Mrs. Brett enteral into an agreement to purchase a piano on the tune-payment system for .£'32. Tho last payment made on the instrument was mt when «£1 was paid, .the amouiit owing then was JJI9. This amount had not been paid. Alexander L. Wilson, auctioneer, gave evidence 011 the lines of tho Sub-liispee-tor's statement, and said that he asked tjio femalo accused if there was anv bailment, bill of sale, or security on the piano, and she replied that it' was all clear. Subsequently .witness had a communication from a legal firm in the cii.Y respecting the sale, and he then ascertained that Laidlaw and Gray hail a security on the instrument. Ho paid .£25 to the legal firm to settle their claim.

Nobel Decamp, storeman for A. L. Wihon, gave evidence as to removing the piano.

I lain Clothes Constable Holmes "avo evidence that when M,rs. lireU was interviewed she said that she knew tliat here was something owing on the piano, but she did not know how much. The male accused said he did not think he should be in the case at .ill. Witness later saw the accused at the gnol, when tie male accused made a statement to the eileet that his wife owned the piano and had made all the arrangements for Dp nod in accu s«l arrested, in

This concluded the easa f., r tho prosecu ton and at this stage comsel for the delendants said that the filial* defendant would plead guilty, but the male defendant not jruiltv. iio asked that tlie male accused be discharged as he was not concerned in the tr.waction lie Bench agreed that there was in--ufhcient evidence against <:he male acd" rB Court for sentence.