FALSE PRETENCES.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 357, 6 March 1902, Page 3

FALSE PRETENCES.

LOOSE BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Invercargill, last night. At the Supreme Court, George Carlyle was charged with, by means of false pretonces, obtaining £6 16s 03 and goods and a horso from Geo. F. Johnson. The alleged offences were committed on Deo. 6th and 9tli, 1895. Accused was at the time a rabbiter in tlie neighborhood of Lumsden. He purchased the articles from Johuson, storekeeper, and gave in payment a cheque for £5, receiving change in cash. At the time of this transaction accused intimated his desire to procure a horse, and prosecutor sold ono to him for £ll, accused giving a cheque for tlio amount. Both cheques were dishonored, accused having something less than £2 to his credit. Ho left the district, and Johnson had heard or soon nothing of him till a short time ago. It had been found that just previous to the issue of the cheques referred to he had £7O to his credit in the bank, but this had been withdrawn. Accused, in giving evidence, said that all the banking transactions had been done by proxy, and be did not know the exact state of the account when he drew the cheques. That he did not mean fraud was shown, ho urged, by the facts that he got married and that he announced it in the papers, that he had been in Lumsden and the district since, and prosecutor had never complained to him.that the cheques had not been mot. The jury found a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation to mercy on account of the lapse of time and the loose way in which the transactions had been put through. The Chief Justice reserved sentence till tho morning.