FORGED BANK NOTES

Otago Witness, Issue 4028, 26 May 1931, Page 74

FORGED BANK NOTES

AN ALLEGED CONSPIRACY FOUR MEN BEFORE THE COURT, AUCKLAND, May 21. Three Australian showmen, Percy Short, aged 56, his son, Percy John M'Kenzie Short, aged 20, and Harry Torpy, aged 46, and Maurice Goodman, aged 33, a traveller, described as a native of England, appeared before Mr F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the police court to-day on charges connected with the circulation of counterfeit Bank of New South Wales £1 notes. All four were charged with conspiring to defraud the public by uttering forged £1 notes, and there were five other charges of uttering forged £1 notes to shopkeepers. Roy Pankhurst, a tobacconist, of Otahuhu, said that three men entered his shop one after the other on the afternoon of April 24. Each bought a packet of cigarettes, and each tendered a£l note. Witness gave the men 19s 2d each as change. The notes were forged, and bore the same number. Witness attended an identification parade at the police station, when he identified Short, jun., as one of the men Bertie Thomas Bond, drapery manager, of Otahuhu, said that on April 24 a man entered his shop and asked for a packet of needles, and in payment tendered a £1 note. Witness gave him 19s 3d change. He had a roll of notes in his hand, probably 15 or .20, and took one from the bundle, crumpled it up" in his hand, and threw it on the counter. Witness saw a green motor car outside the shop. Later, he recognised a car at the police station as the same vehicle he saw outside his shop. Other shopkeepers gave similar evidence. The police gave evidence as to the movements of the accused, after which the accused pleaded not guilty, and were committed for trial. Bail was fixed at £5OO each.