A Singular Forgery Case

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 33, 3 September 1892, Page 4

A Singular Forgery Case

A the Sydney criminal sessions on Friday last Michael Lahiff was acquitted on a charge ot having uttered a forged Ll note of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. The facts in the case were somewhat remarkable. A forged note had been presented at a branch of the bank -and had, been branded as a forgery in the usual way. It had then been handed back to the person who presented it, and ultimately it had come into the hands of the accused. He being, aB ne explained, an ignorant man, had not noticed that it was marked as a forgery, and had accepted it in payment for some oranges he had sold. He hatt then tendered it at a hotel in payment for two threepenny drinks. The landlord, it appears, was short sighted, and he also failed to notice that the note was marked as bad. The jury, in acquitting the accused, added a rider that in their opinion any forged note, on being presented to a bank, suould be destroyed. Judge Wilkinson agreed that it was a scandalous thing that a noce should be reissued after being stamped as a forgery, but he pointed out that a bank would have no power to destroy such a note, as it was the property of the person presenting it. — Dunedin Star.