BANK NOTE FRAUD.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 12 June 1924, Page 7

BANK NOTE FRAUD.

MAY BE GIGANTIC. A story that up to £IOO,OOO worth of £1 notes have been filched and sent back into circulation, instead of having been destroyed, us the Note Issue Board had ordered, gained credence in Melbourne last week-end (says a Sydney correspondent). Though the authorities have been unable to confirm it, there is no manner in which they can with certainty deny it, beyond pointing out that their system precludes such a possibility. But it has been proved that the system can be overcome, and the general feeling is that a sum, not assessable, has been taken.

The first intimation of something amiss is said to have been when a checker received a note foy cancellation which he had sent for destruction months before. A high authority was sent over from Sydney to inquire, and he was at work for a fortnight before anything leaked out. It is understood that he was unable to say whether the fraud bad taken place, but others similarly well informed have stated time and again since that the fraud could have been, and probably was, worked.

A further sensation was caused with the announcement that the numbers of £1 notes destroyed were not registered, making it 'apparent that if such is the case, the fraud could have been gigantic, and there would be no possibility of even estimating how great its extent. One man, who has left the bank, in an interview, said definitely that the bank had discontinued the registering of the £1 and 10s notes, saving money on the number of checkers, but leaving the very loophole for which the conspirators had schemed. “The only numbers now marked off in the register are of notes of £5 or higher denomination,” he said. “The frauds which are coming to light now could have gone on indefinitely, perhaps for 20 years, only the conspirators became greedy, and commenced to attack the £o and £lO notes. The robberies leaked out when the same notes, though officially cancelled, commenced to filter back to the bank again._ . The matter is .still the subject of investigation.