VALUELESS CHEQUES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 135, 9 June 1932, Page 7

VALUELESS CHEQUES.

YOUNG FARMER'S OFFENCES. " GIVEN TO A GAY liIFE." TOTAL OF £70 RECEIVED. "This young man is given to & gay lifc—women and wine—that's the cause of his trouble," said Detective Sergeant Kelly about Walter Phillip Hailes, 30, a farmer, who appeared at the Police Court this morning on a series of charges of obtaining goods and money by means of valueless cheques. Hailes pleaded guilty to all charges. Mr. Kelly said the offences were committed at Wellington, Matamata, Te Aroha and Auckland. On Slay 5, Hailes went to the railway booking office in | Symonds Street and bought a first-class railway ticket from Auckland to Invercargill, costing £5 3/. The clerk knew him, as he had bought tickets there before. Hailes cashed a cheque for £30 and apart from receiving the ticket, he obtained the balance in change. The cheque was returned, marked • "no account" and the clerk had to make good the money. On other occasions from various people, Hailes obtained sums of £5 5/, a pair of shoes and £6 t>y a valueless cheque from an Auckland store, a cardigan worth 15/6 and £4 14/6 in money from a shop in Matamata, and £10 in cash at Te Aroha, all by means of valueless cheques. "Hailes comes from a respectable family at Gore, but owing to his conduct they will not have anything to do with him," added Mr. Kelly. "He is a married man with one child, but he has been separated from them for some time. He has had part of a relative's estate, but has spent the lot." Hailes, in a. long statement from the dock, said that after undergoing nineteen operations in the South, he came to Auckland to stay with friends, but got into trouble. He made restitution. He started on relief works, but he had to give up the hard work owing to his abdominal operations rendering him physically unable to work. " I then went down to Christchurch to stay with a relative, but when I };ot there I found he had gone down South," lie continued. "I was worried about paying my board, and I was invited to fill in a blank cheque. This I did. I was tempted. I then went to the races to try to get back enough to square it up, but I missed." The Magistrate: And you went 011 doiii£ that in different towns?— -iics. had hoped to make it all up a iact but I failed. . "He's-got about £70 by «*;>' these valueless cheques, issuedl dm April and May," said Detective-Sergeant Kelly. , c.,,. Mr F K Hunt remanded accused • sentence, pending the receipt of a repo. t from tlie probation ollicci. ,