Heartless Fraud on Widow

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 28, 3 February 1937, Page 4

Heartless Fraud on Widow

MAN PLEADS GUILTY IN SUPREME UOURT. Per Freed Association. DUNEDIN, Last Night. In tho Supreme Court the case in which William George Thomas was to have stood his trial on a charge of obtaining money by false pretences and also on a charge of escaping from prison took an unexpected turn when accused decided to plead guilty. Thomas was remanded for sentence. The evidence tendered in the lower court showed that he had secured a sum of £139 from a widow in Dunedin by falsely representing to her that ho had a chemist’s business in Adelaide and a sum of money on fixed deposit in the Bank of New Zealand. He became engaged to the widow in February as the result of a matrimonial advertisement which he inserted in a local paper. The woman later mortgaged her home and gave him £139 to enable him to release his money from the bank. It was further alleged that Thomas secured an engagement ring from the widow and gave it to a young woman at Woodhaugh during the time that he purported to bo engaged to the widow. Not Guilty of “Drunk in Charge." A verdict of not guilty was returned in the case in which Philip David Roper was charged with being intoxicated in charge of a car and causing the deuth of a passenger. The hearing is proceeding of a charge of cattle stealing against John Riely. TRUE BILL ON CHARGE OF RECEIVING STOLEN WOOL TIMARU, Last Night. The criminal session of the .Supreme Court opened here this morning before Mr. Justice Northcroft. “The evidence seems to justify the returning of a true bill in the indictment against William Hewson, of Geraldine, charged with receiving stolen wool and skins," said the Judge. A true bill was returned.