CHARGE OF FORGERY

Evening Star, Issue 23382, 27 September 1939, Page 10

CHARGE OF FORGERY

CANADIAN PLEADS GUILTY COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE In the Police Court to-day, before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., evidence vi-as heard m respect of a charge against Henry Thomas Carstairs, alias Harry Gale, a Canadian, aged 41 years, of forging a cheque for £IU on July 17, purporting to bo drawn by \V. Hazlctt on the National Bank of New Zealand. The accused, who was not represented by counsel, pleaded guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Chief-detective Holmes conducted the prosecution. Donald Withers, bookseller and stationer, High street, said that the accused came into his shop with the idea of buying some books, and said that his name was Uazlett. The accused picked out hooks to the value of £2, and asked witness for a blank cheque, which witness went to another shop to got. The accused asked for the loan of a pen, and as far as witness could see at the time, the amount that was filled in was for £lO. Witness did not pay the accused any money. The accused asked witness to make the books into a parcel, and said he would go next door to the Carlton Hotel and get the cheque changed, where he was known. The accused did not come back for the books. Evidence was given by John Thomas Nicol Grant, licensee of the Carlton Hotel, that the accused was introduced to witness on July 17 as Harry Gale by another man who accompanied the accused to •witness’s hotel, it being stated that the accused looked after Mr Hazlett’s horses. They had drinks together, and the other man left. The accused went away, and when he came hack ho asked if witness would cash one of his boss’s cheques. The cheque was for £lO, and witness handed him £lO for the cheque, which was drawn in favour of H. Gale and signed W. Hazlctt. Witness passed a remark about the signature, and the accused said it was quite all right. When witness cashed the cheque ho was led to believe that it bore Mr Hazlett’s signature. Accused wrote his name on the back and also the name of Hazlett’s station, Burwood, where ho was supposed to he working. The cheque was paid into the bank and came back marked “ no account.”

Charles Henry Westland, head ledgerkeeper at the National Bank of New Zealand, said that the cheque had been received at the bank on July 18 last. There was no person of the name of “ W. Hazlett ” with an account at his bank at Dunedin.

Detective Murray, of Wanganui, said the accused was arrested on another charge on September 7, and witness interviewed him on the present charge next day, the accused admitting the offence. In a statement the accused paid he was a, painter by trade and had followed a seafaring occupation and also gold mining. The accused said he had been on a drinking bout a few days before the offence, and that he told the licensee he had been working for Hazlett and that the cheque was for wages, William Edgar Hazlett, a farmer, residing at Invercargill, said he was in partnership with his brother in the Burwood station, Mossburn. The cheque (produced) was not drawn by witness and the signature was not his. Witness did not have an account at the National Bank, Dunedin, nor did he know the accused. He had never given the accused or anyone- else authority to draw a cheque on his behalf.