USE OF CHEQUES.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1922, Page 5

USE OF CHEQUES.

■A YOUNG MAN’S FALL. COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE. Neglect to obey the advice bn theifr cheqiie books to keep them in. a place of security was responsible for two farmers losing cheques, and the temptation of a young man to forge the signature of one of them and utter the cheques to two un« suspecting publicans’ and a grocer. The first act was played in New Plymouth and the adjacent country at the end of last < year and the second at the Magistrate’s Court, New Plymouth, yesterday, when Francis Douglas Still, was before Mr. A. M. Mowlem, S.M., to explain his delinquencies. Accused was charged on three counts of having forged the name of E. A. Taylor to three cheques, and uttering them to tha licensees of the Criterion Hotel, New Plymouth, and the Okato Hotel, and to Jamea McNeill, grocer, of New Plymouth. In opening the case for the police, Detective-Sergeant Cooney said that the facts were that accused had been working at complainant’s place in his kitchen, where Taylor kept his chequebook. When leaving, accused had been paid by a cheque for 17/6. Subsequently Taylor had missed one of his cheques. Accused had their gone to work for Field, who kept his cheque-book on the mantlepiece in the kitchen. From here also two cheques had gone, and the accused, the detective-sergeant alleged, had forged the name of E. A. Taylor to the three cheques and had cashed them. Detective-Sergt. Carroll had interviewed Still in Invercargill, and he had confessed his guilt.' Evidence was given by Ernest Alfred Taylor, farmer, of Tataraimaka, to the effect that accused had worked for him in his kitchen where his cheque-book was kept in an unlocked box. He identified the cheque produced as being missing from his book, but neither the writing on it nor the signature were his. The other two cheques produced bearing his name were not signed by him. . Walter Graham, licensee of the Criterion Hotel, New Plymouth, remembered receiving the cheque produced, which was presented at the bar to be cashed. He had taken jt to the Bank, of New Zealand, where it was cashed at the counter. He could not say if accused was the person who had presented the cheque * he had paid the amount to the barman to hand over. Charles William Field, farmer, of Oaonui, knew the accused, who had worked for him for three weeks last November. Some time after accused left he missed two blank cheques from his book, which he kept on the mantelpiece. The cheques produced bore the same numbers as the butts of the missing cheques from his book. The accused had had no authority to take the cheques. James McNeill, grocer/of New Plymouth, identified the cheque produced, and drawn in favor of R. Lepper. He did not know accused, but knew his people. James Henry Mills, licensee of the Okata Hotel, agreed that the cheque produced, drawn in favor of J. Stanley, had passed through his hands, but while he had seen accused before, he could not say if he was the person who had handed it to him. Donald Angus Doile, a ledger-keeper for the Bank of New Zealand, gave evidence concerning the passing of the cheques through the bank. He knew Taylor’s signature, and the signatures on the cheques were sufficiently like Taylor’s signature to warrant the bank paying out the money. Detective-Sergt. Carroll, of Invercargill,’ stated that he had interviewed accused at the Borstal Institution there, where accused made a written statement admitting his guilt. Accused pleaded guilty to all charges, and was remanded to the Supreme Court for sentence.