FOR TRIAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 16

FOR TRIAL.

ACCOUNTANT COMMITTED.

ALLEGATION OF FORGERY.

The hearing of a charge of forgery and uttering brought against George Graham (63), accountant, was concluded in the Police Court yesterday afternoon.

Graham, for whom Mr. Selwyn Clarke appeared, was, charged on summons with forging and uttering a Maori Land Board voucher for the payment of £16 10/ to Rapata l'ita, of Helensville, on February 2, 1936.

The complainant, Rapata Pita, denied that the signature on the voucher was in his handwriting and said he did not receive the money due to him.

In a statement made by Graham which was produced by Detective F. J. Brady, accused said he accompanied Pita to the Post Office, where Pita signed the voucher for the sum of £16 10/. Graham said he witnessed the Maori's signature. He had not seen Pita after that and as far as he knew Pita drew the money on February 21, the matter finishing there.

After a number of witnesses, including Claude M. Francis, police photographer, and a handwriting expert, Henry William Scott, had given evidence, Mr. Clarke submitted there was not sufficient evidence to warrant Graham being sent for trial to the Supreme Court, as the case for the prosecution relied on the "garbled" evidence of a Maori witness and the opinion of a handwriting expert.

Detective Sergeant Walsh, who prosecuted, submitted that a strong prima facie case had been presented and that the evidence of the main witness had not in any way been shaken.

The presiding justices, Messrs. T. Farrell and C. E. Phillips, held that the case should go for trial.

Graham pleaded not guilty, reserved liis defence, and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Bail was allowed in two sureties of £50 each.