FORGED TRAM TICKETS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 89, 15 April 1913, Page 9

FORGED TRAM TICKETS.

PRINTIN-G DISCOVERED. AN ELABORATE SCHEME. •After nearly five months of patient investigating and following of clues, Plainclothes Constable Kelly and Sergeant Allen, succeeded, on April 7th, iu° unearthing one of the most up-to-date plants for the printing of tram tickets that has yet been discovered, says the "Sydnjey Daily Telegraph." A few days ago It was decided by the police that they had sufficient evidence to act upon, and the next afternoon their investigations ended with the arrest of two tram conductors who were employed on suspected cars. Half-an-hour after their arrest, Kelly, with Sergeant Allen, paid a visit to a house in Kensington, arid, provided with a search warrant, made an examination of the premises. The result of their search was the finding of a complete plant for the manufacture of tram tickets, together with a numbering and stamping machine. A set of blocks, the impression of which was an exact facsimile of the official ticket, was also discovered, and in one roqm was a large quantity of paper for the printing of tickets. Hundreds of tickets, some numbered and some unnumbered, were also found in the house. The method for putting off the tickets was simplicity itself, and consisted in the conductor carrying a bundle of the forgeries in his book. Every second passenger who tendered a fare received one of these, and the chances were, until the police officers began their investigations, very much against detection. The tickets were left unnumbered until the day before it was decided to issue them. On the preceding night, the two men would know the sequence in which the numbers would run on the tickets, which they would receive from the office. Then the imitations would be numbered with the same figures, and it would be impossible to tell°one check from another. It wasstated that the frauds have extended over several years with huge success for the perpetrators. . -. - ■ The two men were taken to the Central Police Station and charged.