WHEN CLOTHES LIE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1051, 15 August 1930, Page 13

WHEN CLOTHES LIE

COSTUME MAY BE ESSENCE OF FALSE PRETENCE ENGLISH JUDGE EXPLAINS Mr. Justice McCardie told some stories at the Leeds Assizes recently to illustrate the meaning of “false pretences” in connection with a case that was before him. Costume was sometimes the essence of false pretence, he said. A man in naval uniform entered a restaurant and said; “I am Captain Brown, of H.M.S. Terrible, and the Admiralty has authorised me to obtain a luncheon at this place and debit it to the Admiralty.” | But he was not a naval officer and I had no authority from the Admiralty, i The false pretence there was not only ; the word of mouth, but the pretence of uniform. In another case a young man vent into a shop in a university town wearing cap and gown, and, giving the name of Brown, obtained goods for which he never paid. He made no promise to pay, and his name was Brown, but the fraud in that case was by the false pretence of the cap and gown. Then there was the well-dressed man who went into a fashionable restaurant, gave an order for dinner and wines, and when the bill was presented said; “I have no money.” The question was whether he had committed a criminal offence. It was held that his attire and manner secured him credit under the pretence that he had money, and he had no intention in his mind of paying when he ordered the dinner and the wine.