FALSE PRETENCES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3210, 9 June 1909, Page 5

FALSE PRETENCES.

NEPHEW OF A LORD IN TROUBLE. SENTENCE OF TWELVE MONTHS. By Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND, June 8. In the Supreme Court to-day, James H. McClure, nephew of the late Lord Overton, was charge with having, on the 14th April, 1909, obtained £lO by false pretences from John Thomas Turner. The circumstances of the case were simple, and as the Crown Prosecutor remarked, of a kind quite common. Prisoner went into a clothier's shop and asked Turner whether he Jaad enough money to cash a cheque for £lO. The cheque was duly cashed, but when presented at the Bank two days later it was dishonoured. Mr Lundon addressed the jury at some length in opening the case for he defence. He explained that for a considerable time accused had been living at the rate of about £25 a week. He was in receipt of a largo remittance, which he spent extravagantly. He had been owner of a large plantation in Fiji. Accused aaid that he was 24 years of age. He received his last remittance from Lady Overtori, who was his aunt. He had drawn from his mother's estate some £1,400 since January, 1908. Witness gave a detailed account of his doings during the last four or five years. He admitted having been imprisoned in Hobart for uttering a valueless cheque. When he cashed the cheque with Turner he thought ha had money in the Bank to meet it. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and prisoner was sentenced to imprisnment for twelve months.