IMPUDENT FRAUD

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 106, 6 May 1943, Page 6

IMPUDENT FRAUD

PLAUSIBLE CANADIAN

ADMITS SERIES OF CHARGES

"This man can only be described

as a plausible and impudent fraud," : said Senior' Detective Walsh after he had outlined to Mr. J. Morling, S.M., in the Police Court to-da3', the seven ' offences admitted by Thomas Henry Carstairs, a painter and rigger, 45. The charges against Carstairs included one deeming him to be a ■ rogue and vagabond, who imposed upon a man by a false representation with a view of obtaining money, two of theft of sums of £10 and £20, another for incurring a debt of £14 with a taxi driver, thereby obtaining ' credit bv fraud, and three of obtain- ■ ing sums of £5, £10 and £19 by false representations. Senior Detective Walsh said the offences were committed between February 17 and April 8. To a farmer who gave accused a lift in his car at Mercer, Carstairs, representing himself as the boatswain of a Canadian ship in port, undertook to obtain a wireless set and some whisky at a cheap rate, and so the • farmer gave him £19. The farmer asked Carstairs to leave the radio and whisky at the house of a Devonport woman. Carstairs, on his return to Auckland, called on the woman and told her he would require a further £10 before he could get the stuff, whereupon she parted with £10. At The Races *5< "Next we have Carstairs in Hamilton, at the races," added Mr. Walsh. "There he met a man and told him , he had a 'good thing'—a horse that -would win. The man gave Carstairs £10 to put on the horse. When he did not see Carstairs after the race the punter became ?. little anxious, "but when Carstairs eventually ."showed up the man gave him another . £10 to put on a horse!" i ' Next, Carstairs hired a taxi at i Hamilton and was driven to Te ;• Awamutu and thence on to Auck- ] land, continued Mr. Walsh. On 1 reaching Auckland he told the taxi : man his ship had gone to Wellingl tfon, where he would have to go to j rejoin it. Feeling sorry for Carstairs, v the taxi man gave him £5. The ; taxi hire, which came to £14, had •. not been paid. Continuing his \ "tour," Carstairs went to New Plyi mouth and Wanganui where,' as a • result of telling stories that his ship ; had been torpedoed and that he ■ was short of money, he was given ; sums of £10 and £15. j " Came From Canada "A native of Canada. Carstairs »unfortunately came to this country .in 1936," said Senior-Detective i Walsh, "and since then he has been . before the Court every year. He ' has 21 previous convictions, most \of them for frauds of this kind. He • has been lucky in the past in receiv- ; ing short sentences and probation. | He is nothing more than a plausible ■ and impudent fraud." ' Asked if he had anything to say, j Carstairs told the magistrate he had lino excuses to "offer, except that he 3 suffered greatly as the result of a I recent operation and wanted money •j to buy spirits and "dope" to stop " the pain. "I am ashamed of myself," 'he said. : ; Mr. Morling: You have been going 'about the country preying on good .natured people and now you,deserve isubstantial punishment.". . On one charge Carstairs was sentenced ,to six months' imprisonment, to be followed by 18 months' reformative- detention". "