Savings Bank Robbed by Clever Scheme

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 407, 16 July 1928, Page 1

Savings Bank Robbed by Clever Scheme

IMMIGRANT’S FRAUD MONEY FOR “GIRL FRIEND” An ingenious scheme of the ‘‘get ftP o uick" variety was unfolded . the Police Court this morning, ‘*h n James Ross Morris, aged 23 was charged with forging a Post office Savings Bank withdrawal •lip* In a statement Morris, who pleaded euilty. said that he had been in New Zealand three years, during which time he had been in the employ of a farmer at Pokeno. “I left there in June/’ he fc aid, “and came to Auckland to look ior work. On arrival I put £4O into my Post Office Savings Bank account, making the total deposit up to over £7O I could see my account dwindling after a time, so I looked round to try and devise new ways of improving my position. I took a woman friend into jny confidence and together we worked out a scheme by which we could get more money from the Post Office than was in my account. I opened another account in the name of James Ross, depositing £l. which I later supplemented with a further £B. On June 30 I visited the Post Office and made out a withdrawal slip of £ 8 from the James Ross account. Having had both slip and book marked by the ledger derk, I altered the eight to eighty and added a nought to the figure. The teller paid out the money without any questions. I handed £7O to my lady friend, who had accompanied me, as she said she was desperately in need of it. I later tried the scheme at the Wellington Post Office, but was arrested while sending a wire to my lady friend in Auckland.” In a supplementary statement, Morris denied having given the £7O to the girl in the case, stating that he had spent most of it at the Auckland races. He had handed back £7O and, with his account confiscated, the deficit stood at £22. Ross, who refused to disclose the name of his feminine accomplice, pleaded guilty and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Ross further pleaded guilty to having in his possession an unregistered revolver with a mother-of-pearl handle. Prisoner, who said that he had bought the weapon from a sailor was convicted and discharged on this count, the revolver being confiscated.