FORGING A BILL OF SALE.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12604, 21 September 1906, Page 4

FORGING A BILL OF SALE.

A VERY OLD EXCUSE,

Rayward Mousley and Mary Hawkins, who iiad pleaded guilty in the lower Court -to forging and uttering a bill of' sale and promissory note, came before Mr Justice Cooper in the Supreme Court yesterday for sentence.., Mr Donnelly, for the female accused, applied for probation on her behalf, stating that ehe had not taken a leading part iii the fraud, nor had she benefited from the transaction* The male accused appeared to have planned the forgeries. He had left under an "assumed name,, and was arrested in Pal* merstcn North, the woman being left in service practically penniless. There wore no previous convictions against the girl, and while awaiting sentence in the Samaritan Home eno had behaved lieraeli in a most exemplary fashion. Mr T. I. Smail, lay.evangelist, stated that while the girl had been in the Samaritan Home she had behaved herself excellently. If she were released on probation her sister in Wellington would take charge of her. « ■ ■ The male prisoner also applied for probation. His Honour said the man had endeavoured to throw the onus of th 6' charge on his companion, whereas the circumstances pointed in another direction. He stated that the woman tempted him, and he fell. That was a very old excuse, but it appeared that the man had tempted the woman. The fraud showed an amount of conning and attention to detail which could only have originated with the man, and he had forged the signatures. The report ot the Probation Officer so far as Mousley was concerned wae unfavourable, and this whole circumstances of the case precluded the possibility of probation. The male accused would be (sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment, while the woman would be admitted to probation for a period of twelve months on the first charge, and ordered to come up for sentence on the second when called upon.