BARBERS IN DOCK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 870, 14 January 1930, Page 1

BARBERS IN DOCK

GIVEN CHANCE TO MAKE GOOD LODGING FOR NOTHING Two hairdressers who had left a Bay of Plenty town abruptly without paying their board bill were given a chance by Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the Police Court this morning. One of the men appeared yesterday, when he pleaded guilty to a charge of obtaining credit, amounting to £2 ss, by fraud. Chief-Detective Hammond then said that the man had “taken in’’ his landlady and made .false representations. There were two men concerned. This morning the second man appeared, and a plea of guilty was also entered for him by Mr. Smyth. “We plead guilty for convenience,” said counsel. “Accused knows that, to defend the case, he would have to go back to the town where the alleged offence was committed. He holds that he was not guilty of the offence with which he is charged, but that his actions were not what they should have been. When he went to the small country town he understood that he had a permanent position in a hairdresser’s shop, but it turned out to be only temporary. Accused left early one morning to catch a bus. saying nothing to his landlady. He is a married man with four children, and has a position.” Counsel asked for suppression of the name, urging that accused would probably lose the position offered him if his name were published. It was th'e man’s first offence. Chief-Detective Hammond said the other man, who had appeared yesterday, had one previous conviction—for bigamy. He also bad a position to go to at Putaruru. As for the man for whom Mi-. Smyth had spoken, people all over the town were looking lor him. Mr. Smyth: That is not so. If what the chief-detective says were correct, i he would have been here before. Both accused were convicted and ordered to come up for sentence when ! called upon, on the condition that they made restitution within 11 days. “They will get six months if the money is not I paid,” said the magistrate* The name of Mr. Smyth's client was : suppressed. "He is a married man ; Wlth four children, and I don’t want : to see him lose his position,” added -dr. Hunt. “I think I can stretch a point this time.”