A LONG LIST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 102, 20 December 1939, Page 4

A LONG LIST

OLD OFFENDER'S ESCAPADE v

VALUELESS CHEQUES ISSUED

ARRESTED AT TAURANGA

Smart work by Constables Wigmore and Prater ol' Whakatane resulted last Friday in the apprehension of a particularly troublesome offender Kenneth Raymond Thomson, at The Mount, Tauranga, a bare two and a half hours after the complaint was first laid against him. With Thomson's arrest the police cleared up half a dozen criminal charges of forgery., false pretences and uttering, which hafd been worrying the department for the past Itff' month and which took place in era! towns. Thomson who bore a string aliases almost akin to a pedigree wflp traced first to Matata, thence to Te Puke, and finally to the Mount where the car he had hired was seen parked near the beach and the 'wanted' man was interrupted in the act of addressing himself to a young lady ori the Strand. His confidence and aplomb however had ebbed sadly when he \ stood before Messrs G. A. Brabant and W. Sullivan, J.P.'s, in the Whaf katarfe Court yesterday charged, with the full list of sins. He pleaded guilty to all seven charges and . failed to cross examine the ses in any one instance. % Many Victims. Constable Fuller who prosecuted said that on December Ist he had stayed at the Taupo Hotel and issued a valueless cheque for which he received £1 2s in change..

At Wairakei on the same date he further endeavoured to obtain, goods and chattels to the value of £8 15s by representing a valueless cheque as valid. In this case he had ordered the goods from a Rotorua firm and though it had been refused, had tendered the cheque in payment. Not content with this he had later undertaken to cash a cheque for a tourist for £10, but had made off with the cash. To cap it all he had booked in at the Commercial Hotel, , jWhakatane, under the assumed name of the tourist. On December 14th at Te Puke he had issued a further cheque for which he obtained cash, and coming to Whakatane had tendered a , . forged cheque to the licensee of the f Comjfnercial Hotel for £12 10s which, was also changed. . H . Loss oi Job. When asked if he had anything yi to .say, Thomson who had a heavy list of previous convictions, and who also elected to be dealt with, summarily said, that he would like the fact taken into consideration that it was some time since he had committed his last offence. He had recently lost his job owing to the import restrictions and there jyas nothing for him. to do. "It is apparent to us that you have made a habit of this sort of thing," observed the Bench in sentencing accused to two months imprisonment on each charge (a total of ten months), "we consider you are treated leniently as the maxi- . Vr mum penalty is six months or £20 on each separate count. Committed to Supreme Court. Thomson pleaded guilty to the two charges of forgery and uttering and was committed to the SupremH-.-Court for sentence. Outlining this case, Fuller said that accused had interviewed a Taneatua fanner in and had represented himself as a tra veller for a Tauranga motor firm.. After obtaining art authority from the farmer for bringing a supposed truck through to Whakatane for his approval, he later persuaded him to part with two blank cheque forms. Armed with these he next proceed--* ed to forge the farmer's name from }* the order, and filled in a cheque for £12 10s which he presented to the licensee who authorised payment. Next morning Thomson was among the missing, the police were communicated with, and his arrest was effected at Mount Maunganui. In a statement to the police Thomson. made a clean breast of everything, detailing how he had paid £6 fpr the hire of the car from Wha. katane and how he had gone on up the coast in the direction of Tau;— Iranga, in order to get clear.