YOUNG CHEMIST’S LAPSE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 539, 17 December 1928, Page 11

YOUNG CHEMIST’S LAPSE

FORGED TESTIMONIALS leniency of the court Out of work and attracted by an advertisement, Donald MacFarlane Fraser, chemist, aged 26, forged testimonials which represented him to be a man of wider experience than that he possessed. Having pleaded guilty in the Police Court he appeared this morning in the Supreme Court for sentence by Mr, Justice Frazer. On prisoner’s behalf, Air. G. P. Finlay said Fraser was a qualified dioihist who had fallen on evil times. There were pathetic circumstances not disclosed in the depositrons. In his profession little work had been offering owing to the fact that so many qualified men were coming forward. Accordingly, Fraser had been obliged to turn to whatever work he could get Until recently he had been doing parttime work at £ 3 a week. An attractive advertisement offering work at his profession hud been the young man’s trouble. Mr. Finlay pointed out that prisoner hacl not attempted to defraud anybody of money. Counsel pleaded that as Fraser belonged to a chemists’ guild probation might result in his being struck off the register. Prisoner might well be dealt with under section 18 of the First Offenders Probation Act. Stating the Crown’s version, Air. V. A'. Hubble said the only difficulty was that, had prisoner obtained the position « by forged references, he might have been a danger to the public. "There has certainly been nothing against you in the past,” said his Honour. “You held yourself out to be a man of greater experience than you possessed. It might have turned out that you were not fitted for the position. Tho mere fact of qualifications does not count everything; ex?*«rience is a very necessary thing in your profession. However, I can quite understand how you fell into temptation.” Holding the belief that Fraser’s offence was nothing more than a temporary lapse, the judge did not impose probation, but discharged prisoner on the understanding that he paid £1 11s costs.