SERIES OF SWINDLES

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12620, 3 December 1926, Page 4

SERIES OF SWINDLES

FALSE PRETENCES AND THEFT TRADESPEOPLE TAKEN DOWN. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, December 2. A story of a. series of swindles and attempts fo obtain money by false pretences was told in the Police Court, when Roland George Collins and Francis Edward Diggle pleaded guilty to a number of charges. Collins was convicted on six charges of false pretences and one of theft. The accused obtained £2O 14s from tradespeople, and attempted to obtain a further sum of £46. Diggle, who was said to be influonced by Collins, a man with a previous list of convictions, was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Collins was sentenced to two terms of six months each, cumulative, to be followed by twelve months’ ■ reformative detention. “Perhaps the Prisons Board won’t let him out go soon this time,” commented Mr F. K. Hunt. S.M. The theft of which Collins was convicted was in respect of £l4 Cs Bd, which he collected as a canvasser for an insurance company in Wellington and failed to account for the money Collins was remanded to Christchurch on two charges of forgery. aDrf Diggle was remanded to Christchurch on a charge of false pretences.