CHEQUE FRAUDS

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19893, 23 May 1936, Page 18 (Supplement)

CHEQUE FRAUDS

New Charge In Alleged Forgery Case. Cashier and £3OO Cheque Payment.

I A further charge was made on‘ :April 15 against five men and a wo[man who appeared on remand at lClerkt-nweli Police Court, London, on charges of conspiracy and forgeryl connected with an alleged cheque fraud. The new charge was that they “con—spired with Albert Adam Armstrong |(\\‘ho committed suicide in his cell). and with oth’ers unknown, to cheat. and defraud banks 01' their money between January 1, 1935, and March 22,] 1936." The defendants were: Florence‘ Ward, aged 41, of Freegrove Road. Holloway, N.; Joseph Eustace. aged] 56, no fixed address; \Valter \Vllliam Lee, aged 34, Howland Street, \V.;I John Taylor. aged 110, Thorne Road, Holloway; William John Duckling. aged 21, Lissongrove, Marylabone; and John Harrison Armstrong, aged 38. of Lydyard Road, Highsate. N. They were charged with being con-corned in forging a cheque for £B6 115 6d. and also with conspiring with Albert Adam Anstrong to forge and utter the cheque. Dorothy Taylor. aged 38, wife of John Taylor, had been remanded at the same time on a charge of renceiving a £1 postal order ‘stated to ‘hvave arisen out of the charges against it'he other accused. 1 Eustace \\'as also charged with forg—ing and uttering a cheque for £BO. ‘ Open Cheques. ‘ Philip Dudley Hunt. a clerk at Lloyd‘s Bank, King‘s Street, Manches—ter, said that he \\'th handed a letter signed in the name of Miss Virginia

‘Venning, a customer. A cheque for £330 was enclosed, and the letter {askedz “\Vili you please hand bearer a book of open cheques." 'lAian Clarem‘e Northrlil‘le, a cashier at the same bank, said that he cashed a cheque for £173, signed “Virginia Venning," for a man subsequently identified by another cashier as Elus—t t‘avce. _ . ‘ Donald Joseph .\iarwood. chief cashier at the Midland Bank. Broad , Street. Reading, said that he was handed a letter purporting to be from the Hon. Blanche Borthwlck, of 'Cado~ , Ban Square, S.\V., requesting that a , cheque—hook be 'handed to the bearer. 0n the following day a man he later identified as Eustace presented a‘ ‘ cheque for £6OO payable to Smithson. He paid over the money in notes. t ' “Asked to Walt." i “ The manager decided to set in touch with Mrs Borthwick by telephone, and I asked the man to wait a little while. He then said that his wife was waiting for him and he would ask her to come inside the thank. i 'did not see him again.“ Mrs Bort’hwlck, in evidence, said she did not write the letter. The Magistrate (.\lr Brodri-ck) dis—charged Armstrong, the other de—fendants being remanded from Thursday until Saturday, the two women with ball. Duckling, protesting against the re—fusal to allow him Duil, said: “You will fetch me up here on a stretcher. I will never come here alive.” Mr Brodrick: Then you will have to come here on a. stretcher.