YOUTH AND A CHEQUE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1922, Page 6

YOUTH AND A CHEQUE.

FORGERY AND UTTERING CHARGE. A STRATFORD CASE. At the Hawera Police Court yesterday Eric Archibald Beere, a youth of 20 years, was charged before Messrs. S. Blake, J.P., and E. C. Hayton, J.P., with forging and uttering a cheque at Hawera on or about October 22, 1921, for the stun of £l4. Senior-Sergeant Henry conducted the case for the police, and Mr. P. O’Dea defended accused.

Senior-Sergeant Henry said that accused, on October 22, went to a resident of Stratford and asked for a blank cheque, stating that his father wanted it. He then filled in the cheque for the amount of £l4 and signed the name rt P. J. Bennett.” He later went to Hawera and had the cheque cashed by a young lady in Mr. Barraclough’s shop and went to the Waverley races, where he lost 02 of the money. Benson Barraclough, who carries on a business as a butcher in Hawera, stated that about October 22 his cashier handed him a cheque for £l4 made payable to J. F. Johnson, and signed P. J. Bennett. His assistant presented the cheque at the Bank of New South Wales, Hawera, and the cheque was returned to witness from the Stratford branch of the Bank of New Zealand, marked “no account.” He did not know the accused.

To Mr. O’Dea: The money .had been refunded after the were issued. He was repaid by Beere’s father. Dominik Sisarich, a restaurant keeper at Stratford, gave evidence that Beere, whom he knew, came to his shop on about October 21 and asked witness for a blank cheque for his father. Witness knew Mr. Beere, senr. Accused paid witness 3d for the cheque and remarked that his father had run out of cheques and wanted to post one away that night.

James Freyne, a bank clerk in the Bank of New Zealand at Stratford, stated that«there was nobody by the name of P. J. Bennett with a bank account at the Bank of New Zealand at Stratford.

Sergeant James Dale, of Stratford, stated that on December 17 he interviewed Beere, who made a statement on the lines of the case presented by the police. Accused pleaded guilty and was committed for sentence 'a£ the next sitting of the Supreme Court at New Plymouth, bail being allowed in one surety of £lOO and accused of £-100.