CHARGE OF ISSUING VALUELESS CHEQUE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3972, 18 July 1929, Page 3

CHARGE OF ISSUING VALUELESS CHEQUE.

FINE OF £5 IMPOSED.

At the local Police Court yesterday, before Messrs J. K. Hornblow and D. R. Ogilvy J’s.P., Donuld Ailwyn Stiles, labourer, of Himatangi, was charged with obtaining £2 from-Mrs. Dwyer, of Wanganui, on June 22nd by issuing a valueless .cheque. Accused pleaded guilty. •Constable J. V. Bell, who con r ducted the ease, said that defendant, who was employed at Himatangi, spent a few days in Wanganui in June. He stayed at McCarthy’s Hotel of which Mrs. Dwyer was the wife of the licensee. On the 22nd defendant ran short of .money, and borrowing a cheque from a friend, he made it out for £2 and handed to Mrs. Dwyer who gave him £2 in cash. The cheque was made out on the Bank of New Zealand, Feilding. Stiles left Wlanganui .the following morning and returned to Hiimatangi. Wjhen interviewed on the 9th inst. defendant said he had made a mistake in making the cheque out. He had an account with the National Bank of New Zealand in Feilding where he was in credit between £l2 and £ls. Inquiries disclosed the fact that there was no branch of the National Bank of New Zealand in Feilding and that Stiles had no account with any hank in that town. Again interviewed, he persisted in his assertion but finally gave way and admitted having issued a valueless cheque and said that he had posted a letter to Mbs. Dwyer containing £2 on Saturday last. He was unable to produce a receipt for this amount but later .produced a receipt fr-ctoi the Post Office to the effect that a sum of £2 had been telegraphed to Mrs. Dwyer. Nothing was previously known against Stiles. Defendand said that he had run short of money at Wanganui and had to get back to Himatangi where he had employment. He owed nothing at the ho fed and had issued the cheque to obtain money to get bac-ik to his work, his intention being to send the money on to Mrs. Dwyer immediately and prevent the cheque from being presented. He had failed to do this however. He was a married man with a wife and two children in Wanganui. He admitted to the Bench that he could have obtained the money without resorting to presenting,a valueless cheque. The Bench pointed out the seriousness of the ehajrge but decided to take a lenient view of the case. Stiles w r as convicted and fined £5 in default seven days’ imprisonment, seven days being allowed in which to pay the fine. The Bench refused to grant defendant’s application for suppression of his name.