SERIES OF SWINDLES

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1926, Page 8

SERIES OF SWINDLES

TRADESPEOPLE DEFRAUDED. By Telegraph.-—Press AssoelatioD. Aukland, Dec. 2. The story of a series of swindles and attempts to obtain money by false pretences was told in the Police Court when Roland George Collins and Francis Edward Diggle pAided guilty to a number of charges. Collins was convicted on six charges o? false pretences and one of theft, while Diggle was convicted on six charges of false pretences. They obtained £2O 14s from tradespeople, and attmepted to obtain a further sum of £46. Diggle, who was said to be influenced by Collins, a ma’a with a list of previous convictions, was sentenced to six months imprisonment, and Collins was sentenced to two terms of six montlis each, cumulative, followed by twelve months’ reformative detention. “Perhaps tlie Prison’s Board won’t let him out so soon this time,” commented the Magistrate, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M. The theft charge in respect of which Collins was convicted was in respect of £l4 6s Bd, which he collected as a canvasser for an insurance company in Wellington, and failed to acount for. Collins was remanded to Christchurch on two charges of forgery, and Diggle was remanded to Christchurch on a charge of false pretences.