COUNTERFEIT COINS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 16, 24 May 1913, Page 3

COUNTERFEIT COINS.

“A STRAIN GE AND.. UNIQUE IDEA.” Wellington, May 21. A bailiff, a landlord, and a distressed tenant were involved in a domestic drama which was unfolded in the Magistrate’s Court this morning,'before Mr W. G. Riddell, S.M. Mary Brady, a young married woman, was charged with having uttered six counterfeit shillings and one counterfeit sixpenny piece to Robert Corkhill. According to the story disclosed to the court, Mrs Brady, who was the occupant of 82 Kent Terrace, -fell in arrears with her rent, and the landlord (John Esau Miles) instructed a bailiff (Robert Corkhill) to distrain on her furniture. Miles accompanied the bailiff to the house, one entering the house by the front door and the other by the back. At the back door the landlord encountered opposition in the shape of a broomstick wielded by the lady of the house. He effected an entrance, however, and joined Cork-_ hill in the dining room. The two stayed there from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Miles being away for short intervals.. At 4 o’clock Mrs Brady (who went out in the afternoon) returned, and showed Miles some pawn tickets, and said that she could not get rid of jiim. “Then,” in the words of her counsel (Mr T. M. Wilford), “from the back of her brain came this strange and unique idea. She purchased a bottle of gold paint, painted her few remaining shillings gold, and paid them over as sovereigns.” Miles, deceived by the colour of the coins, accepted them as sovereigns, and ■subsequently, on leaving the house together'with the bailiff, discovered that he had been tricked. The accused pleaded guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence, his Worship remarking that the question of mitigation should be laid before the judge. Hail was allowed on her own recognisances.