THREE YEARS’ GAOL

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1056, 21 August 1930, Page 10

THREE YEARS’ GAOL

ISSUED “DUD” CHEQUES l “A FAVOURITE TRICK” | “It is not right that he should j be allowed out. He is an habitus! criminal, and his favourite trick I is false pretences.” : So said Mr. F. K. Hunt, s.M. at th 1 Police Court today, when he sentencM ; Kenneth Raymond Thomson, a i., | Thompson, alias Keith Burke - • three years’ imprisonment for iss’uin- ' valueless cheques. * n - T'homson, a traveller, aged 4J : peared on five charges of isufioj valueless cheques totalling £-15 Auckland and Wellington betwaS July 2 and August 9. 1930. A furth«charge of delivering an unstamped r» jeeipt for £3 4s Gd was prefers against him. Mr. K. C Aekins app ared for,,, cused, who pleaded guilty to - ■ charges and elected to be dealt wi-« : summarily. j According to Chief-Detective Ham mond, Thomson had been living with ’ his wife in Wellington, and a keeper had foolishly given him tvo j blank cheque . forms. Accused had 1 promptly cashed them for £3 and £■ 1 respectively. BEEN CONVICTED ! “He then came to Auckland ar took up residence at Takapuna.” to-' tinued Mr. Hammond. “He got mo cheques—just where, I can’t say—cashed them for £9, £4 10s and V--10s. He has been convicted several times, and is an habitual criminal «i, iias a particular weakness for th>i kind of crime.” Mr. Hunt: Well, Mr. Aekins, I’d hu to know what you can sav on b-k.K | of this man. “He went to the sub-accountant cj one of the banks in Auckland, askF for cheque forms and got them,” sap counsel. “He then went to a branch of the bank at Takapuna and iomore. He was not questioned at the banks.” | Chief-Detective Hammond: Th»j doesn’t excuse him. i “No, but it makes temptation I greater,” said counsel. Accused had ! tried to get work everywhere, but th- ; fact that he had been in gaol told against him. He had also had his leg severely crushed at Mount Edet, which narrowed his chances of em- ; ployment. “BANKS TO BLAME” “The banks are largely to blame fo: his present plight, sir,” said counsel. Mr. Hammond: If he couldn't teii a tale he couldn’t cash the chequee “He didn’t have to tell a tale,” said Mr. Aekins. Mr. Hunt: That's his way of makins a living. . Counsel: Accused has been hounded down wherever he has gone for a job. “Yes, they all tell you that whet 1 they are caught,” said Mr. Hunt COULDN’T GET WORK I The probation officer in Wellington | had a list of all the jobs accused had I tried to get in Wellington, said tout i sel, in asking for leniency. Mr. Hunt said it was not right that ' the man should be out of gaol. He was an habitual criminal and made a ! practice of this form of crime, j “I'll sentence him to six months imprisonment on each of the first ! two charges, the sentences to be cumulative,” said the magistrate. "He | will have two years’ reformative de- | tention on top of that, i “They get hold of poor women shopkeepers and take them down, 1 Mr. Hunt continued.

Mr. Aekins: Well, he got two publicans. too.