VALUELESS CHEQUE ISSUED

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 118, 16 February 1928, Page 6

VALUELESS CHEQUE ISSUED

ACCUSED REMANDED FOR SENTENCE. Masterton, I'ebruary 15. On a charge of being idle and disorderly, and also of having obtained from S. J. Gilhnan, of Alasterton, on February 11, by means of a valueless cheque, the sum of £3, John Briton Clark, alias E. S. Smith, appeared on remand in the Magistrate’s Court today. Accused, for whom Air. J. Al. Laing appeared, entered a plea of guilty. Sergeant Dyer said that accused came to Alasterton shortly after the New Year, had done no work, and had apparently made no effort to obtain any. He had secured accommodation at local boardinghouses on the statement that he. expected money from his solicitors in Auckland. It was owing to complaints of his having borrowed money that he was charged with vagrancy. He had obtained two blank cheques from a billiard room proprietor, filled one in, and cashed it with Gillman. The latter later found it to be valueless. Accused had run away from a constable in the park, but had been arrested after a chase on a bicycle. There was then no money in his possession. He owed money to several boardinghouses. Counsel for Clark pleaded that his client had become infatuated with a woman of low character. He had met her demands for money, and it was because of these that he had issued the cheque. Accused came of a well-known Auckland family, who had wired £lO to reimburse Gillman, while arrangements had been made to settle the other debts. Counsel asked that Clark be admitted to probation, stating that.he would facilitate accused’s return to Auckland.

Sergeant Dyer remarked that in regard to the woman in the case she had complained to the police that accused had been following her about and forcing his attentions upon her. Counsel: When she complained to the police my client had no money and she did not want him. Immediately he gets some she is quite prepared to have him again.

In remanding accused for sentence until to-morrow morning, the Magistrate remarked that the report of the probation officer would be obtained.