FORGED PETROL COUPONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1940, Page 6

FORGED PETROL COUPONS

AN AUSTRALIAN PROBLEM. RATION TICKETS EASILY PURCHASED. “It is common knowledge among road transport operators that ration tickets, apparently forged ones, can be bought for so much a dozen,” said the chairman of the Sydney Taxicab Council (Mr 11. Sydney Smith) in convercation with the Sydney “Sun.” “Taxi drivers have told me," he added, "that they have been approached m. the rank by people ottering to get ration tickets for them at a price.” Detectives, however, have so fatbeen unable to find any concrete evidence that there is trafficking in forged petrol tickets. "I have not seen any forged tickets, nor have I received any complaints from any source." said the Chief of the C. 1.8. (Inspector Matthews). “I have hoard stories about people being able to buy tickets at various prices from Id to 3d. but our efforts to get to the bottom of the tales have boon fruitless. "Invariably it is a case of a chain of stories, but you can never get back as far as the person who actually bought the tickets." The secretary of the Slate Liquid Fuel Control Board (Mr W. L. Carter) admitted that the forging of tickets would not be difficult because the design was compartively simple and special paper was not used.

A check of the number of ration tickets passed to the oil companies by the retailers of petrol at the end of the month would help to show whether or not forgeries were used to obtain petrol.