YOUTHFUL VENTURE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21178, 30 July 1940, Page 7

YOUTHFUL VENTURE

ATMOSPHERE OF WEALTH FRAUD AND THEFT ADMITTED DICTATED TO “SECRETARY” (By Telegraph.—Press Association) NEW PLYMOUTH, Monday Dictating letters to his “secretary” in the lounge of a New Plymouth Hotel, where he obtained credit for board and lodging by fraud to the value of £9 6s 9d, and dictating further letters in a hairdressing saloon while having a permanent wave in his hair were some of the devices of Neil Oliver Moore, a youth of not quite 19 years, in an endeavour to create an atmosphere about himself of munificence and wealth, as part of the process of publishing a booklet entitled “Our New Zealand,” the proceeds of which were to go to the “Soldiers’ Benefit League.” The typewriter used by the “secretary” was obtained together with some stationery from a local firm on credit, and the machine was sold the same day to a second-hand dealer for £2 10s. i The scheme miscarried, and the result was the appearance of accused this morning on remand before Mr W. H. Woodward, S.M., on a series of charges. He was admitted to probation for two years and three months until he reaches the age of 21, and was ordered to make restitution of £ls 5s 9d. Series of Charges The charges involved were that he was idle and disorderly in that he had no lawful means of support, stealing a typewriter, obtaining credit for board and lodging by fraud, unlawfully raising money for patriotic purposes, and incurring other debts by fraud. Accused pleaded guilty to all charges. The police said he engaged a young girl as secretary, and also men to canvass for advertisements. His “staff” was obtained through the Placement Officer. He stayed at a hotel under the name of Van Ashe, and he had been known in Palmerston North by the name of de Castro.