GREY SENT BACK TO GAOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 789, 9 October 1929, Page 1

GREY SENT BACK TO GAOL

CHARGED AS FUGITIVE CRIMINAL HELENSVILLE MAN’S BAIL CANCELLED BAIL in a personal surety of £3,000 and three additional sureties each of £I,OOO, granted to a Helensville man charged under the name of A. B. Crouch as being a fugitive criminal from the United States, was cancelled by Mr. P. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Police Court this morning. The bail was granted last "Wednesday following an appeal made by Mr. Finlay, supported bj r a petition from residents of Helensville where the accused man was living when he was arrested. John Grey, as the man was known in Helensville, is alleged to be A. B. Crouch, wanted in Texas, U.S.A., for a 13-years-old forgery charge involving 200,000 dollars.

Bull 'was granted last Wednesday be 'die grounds that accused had bamerous visitors on business affairs sad that, through the necessity of cornfifing as much as possible with prison regulations, it was impossible for the man's legal advisers to prepare bis case. Mr. Hubble, for the Crown, applied this morning for a further week’s adjournment and asked for the cancellation of bail. “The man has now been on bail for a week,” he said. “I underHand that the business has been sold and, in view of the principle of the page and our obligation to a foreign ■ ountry, I ask that he be remanded in custody.”

Mr. Finlay strenuously opposed the frown's application. "The man has acted more than honourably while he baa been on bail,” said counsel. “He has informed the local constable when be has been coming up to town on business, even when he has been I leaving the town for an hour or two. It is a question of common justice end the roan should not be harassed. The bail. £6,000. is about a record for Mew Zealand and wo want liberty of action. The business has not been sold and there is no change in the position. Accused has justified liis release and he will report two or three tines a day if necessary. As a mat-

ter of fact, he has been doing that. I don’t know when these papers will arrive from America, though we were told that they would be here last Monday.” Mr. Hubble said that it had never been promised that the documents would be in Auckland on Octo-

ber 7. Had they caught a certain air mail in America they would have been in Auckland on the date mentioned, but it was now understood that they would arrive in Wellington on October 21, to be sent up to Auckland on the day following. “Last week I gave this man bail to make it easier for him to see the numerous people I understood were visiting the gaol for interviews,” said the magistrate. “Since then I have been worried. The man has had a week’s liberty and X must refuse to renew the bail. There is not only responsibility toward the man. There is the responsibility that New Zealand owes to a foreign country. That doesn’t prevent him applying to the Supreme Court for hail, of course. Let them take the responsibility of releasing him.”