UNUSUAL TENDER

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3298, 9 August 1943, Page 8

UNUSUAL TENDER

CHEQUE TO ENTER DANCE SEQUEL HEARD IN COURT COMMENT BY MAGISTRATE The tender of a cheque for £4 in payment of a charge of Is 6d for admittance to a dance hall must be an unusual occurrence, but this happened in New Plymouth recently and the cheque turned o.ut to be valueless. A further unusual point in connection with the incident was the apparently casual manner of the identification of the person who tendered the cheque as the person in whose favour it was drawn. The ticket seller at the hall asked for some assurance from the youth who offered the cheque that he was the person to whom it was payable and a bystander gave his word, but the youth later said he did not know the name of the man who identified him.

These were some of the matters which came to light in the New Plymouth Police Court recently when a youth names Raymond James Westbury was charged before Mr W. H. Woodward, .S.M., on two informations alleging false pretences in New Plymouth on January 30 and June 20 of this year, the sums involved being £4 and £3 respectively. The accused pleaded guilty and elected to be dealt with summarily. He was remanded for sentence in custody. Cheques from Employer’s Book Senior-Detective E. C. Jarrold stated the accused had been working for Mr T. E. Larkin, Okato. In January of this year he obtained, his employer’s cheque book and stole the form from it on which the cheque for £4 was made out. It was made payable to “Roy Bell” and purported to be signed by “A. Gibson,” of Rahotu. This cheque was tendered at a dance hall in New Plymouth in payment of the admittance charge of Is 6d. The ticket-seller asked if the tenderer was Roy Bell and another man at the door said he was, though accused said when interviewed, that he did not know the name of the other man. He was also unknown t o the ticket-seller. When that cheque went through the bank it passed through some other account and was not detected.

second cheque for £3 was cashed in a New Plymouth shop, the young woman assistant being given authority to accept it. This was stopped by the bank and found to correspond with the cheque in the former transaction, being made out to Roy Bell and signed A. Gibson.

When the matter was investigated it was found that three forms had been torn from Mr Larkin’s cheque book, the butts as well being taken out. The accused was interviewed and later arrested by Constable L., W. Mitchell. He admitted taking the cheques and tendering them as stated. He said the money he received had been spent. The third cheque form he said he had, burned the previous evening.

He had been in town for the weekend and when asked why he had not gone back to Okato on Monday he said he had heard Mi' Larkin discussing something about cheques over the telephone and he suspected something was happening. Detective Jarrold said his wages were £2 a week and Mr Larkin had banked the money for him in a kind of trust account, in which there was a credit of about £l2. In answer to the Magistrate Westbury said he took the cheques because he wanted a bit more money, though he knew Mr Larkin was holding moneys due to him. Detective Jarrold said Mr Larkin regarded Westbury as a satisfactory worker and was surprised at this lapse. He had engaged in other activities in the district involving the handling of money and everything was in order.

Westbury told the Magistrate he had spent the money on taking friends to the pictures and in buying cigarettes and tobacco.

* In remanding the accused for a report by the probation officer the Magistrate said there was something cunning in the taking out of the butts with the other' portion of the cheque forms.