THEFT CHARGE FAILS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 936, 1 April 1930, Page 16

THEFT CHARGE FAILS

TALE OF MISSING CHEQUE “There is some doubt in this case, and I must dismiss the information,” said Mr. W. R. McKean, S.M., when Harry Bushell Wallen, of Manurewa, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday on a charge of the theft of a cheque for £1 18s, the property of Leonard Robinson. Robinson, a bush contractor, said he had been boarding with Wallen for some months. After leaving there he learned that a cheque had been sent to Wallen for him, but when he went to get it, he was told that it was not negotiable as it had been issued more than six months e*arlier. Witness later found the cheque had been cashed. That he had opened a letter containing the cheque by mistake and then placed it on a shelf from which it was later missed was the explanation given by Wallen. He and his wife had been in charge of Robinson’s correspondence during his stay with them, and he himself had endorsed the cheque at Robinson’s request. However, he had not cashed it, putting it away, but nine or ten months later he had been unable to find it. “Who got the benefit of the money I do not know,” said the magistrate, dismissing the charge. “If Robinson lost his money it was due to the carelessness of Wallen.”