ALLEGED FORGERY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 October 1938, Page 9

ALLEGED FORGERY

ACCOUNTANT FOR TRIAL. AN EX-EKETAHUNA RESIDENT. By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, This Day. On a charge of having forged a cheque drawn on the Bank of New Zealand, Eketahuna, for £4OO, Frank William Graham Herdman, accountaint, aged 62, was committed for trial when he appeared before Mr J. H. Luxford, S.M., im the Magistrates’ Court, Wellington, yesterday] Accused pleaded not guilty. Detective-Sergeant W. R. Murray, who prosecuted, said that Herdman called on the Bank of Australasia on September 19 and said that he wished to open an account in his own name. He presented the cheque for payment into the account. Though the signature on the cheque appeared to be genuine accused had no right to the cheque book from which it came.. The cheque came from a book issued to D. P. Ryan while accused was temporarily employed by the complainant company. Desmond Dennis Ryan, principal of D. P. Ryan and Sons, Ltd, Eketahuna, said Herdman had been employed by his company for temporary periods during 1936. His work did not include the writing of cheques and he had not had authority to take cheque forms. Witness said he had sometimes signed blank cheques for his brother when he went away. He identified the cheque form produced in court as one coming from a book issued in 1936. The signature appeared to be his own, he said, but the rest of the details on the cheque had been filled in without his authority. William Walsh Wrightson, accountant at the Bank of Australasia, Wellington, gave evidence that accused went to the bank on September 19 and said he wished to open an account. He gave the name of Herdman. When asked what he proposed to pay into the account he produced the cheque in question. The cheque was forwarded to the Bank of New Zealand, Eketahuna, but was returned marked “payment stopped.” Witness subsequently handed the cheque to Detective-Serg-eant McLennan. Detective-Sergearlt W. McLennan said he had called at the Bank of Australasia, Wellington, on September 21 and was handed the cheque produced. On the same day he saw accused and told him he wished to see him in connection with the cheque. Accused made a statement that he had been given a blank cheque on September 19 by a man whose name he did not know but who had been in the employ of D. P. Ryan at the same time as himself. The man, he said, had asked him to cash the cheque and he filled it in for £4OO.