REMARKABLE FORGERY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 21 September 1907, Page 4

REMARKABLE FORGERY.

o DEFEAUDI NO BIRMINGHAM LAWYERS. London, July 27. A remarkable charge of forgery, which was described by Mr Justice Jelf as about the blackest he could conceive, was disposed of on Saturday at the Birmingham Assizes. The defendants were Arthur Harper, managing clerk to his father, a local solicitor, and Frederick Vallis, a tailor, who were accused of uttering ,a forged deed in respect of property at Balsall Heath, by which they obtained UISOO from Messrs Beale and Co., solicitors. Other charges related to .eiSllO and .tllflo obtained by somewhat similar means from Messrs Tyndall and Co., and Price and Atkins, solicitors, respectively. Harper pleaded guilty to the first charge, and Vallis gave evidence to the effect that he absolutely trusted Harper, who had befriended him.

The father of the prisoner, Mr Charles Henry Harper, said be believed his son had always led a perfectly straight and upright life. He had held many positions of trust, and was at present a trustee of a sum of ;CaO()0. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty against

In sentencing Harper the Judge said he had utilised his legal knowledge to defraud some of the most astute"lawyers in the city. It was the biggest robbery he had come across in Birmingham. He had at first intended to send him for seven years' penal servitude, but after what had been said he would make the sentence the most lenient lie could (iass—namely, three years' penal servitude,