FAKED TICKET.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18636, 10 March 1926, Page 6

FAKED TICKET.

AT RICCARTON RACES. MAN WHO FOUND IT. A' well-known and highly, .respected middle-aged Christchurch accountant (publication of whose name was suppressed! from the newspapers) "admitted having attempted to steal £2 7s, the property of the Canterbury' Jockey Club. From the statements made it was learned that the man .had picked a ticket up, while at the Eiccarton course recently, and, not knowing the number One on it had been altered by some other person .to number Four (which had been carried first to the winning post by a horse in a certain race that had just finished) took it to the totalisator window and attempted to cash it. However the clerk noticed that the number had been interfered with, and a police officer was called. "Picked TJp a Ticket." Statements made by Chief-Detective T. Gibson were; to the. effect that the man had gone, out to .the races and while walking about with another.man he had picked up a ticket and. had taken it to the totalisator window-with the object of cashing it. But the clerk at the window noticed that the number One on the ticket had been altered to number Four, which was the number of the winning horse in a certain '■ race. He telephoned for the police, and the Chief-Detective had then come on the scene. He asked the man, "what he meant by it," and the reply V: was, "Well, I'm only, cashing it for a friend." Then when the detective said he would wait until the "friend'? came up, the defendant said, "Oh, well I might as well tell the truth; I; found the ticket and attempted to caslvit." Detective was Surprised. "When I found it was , I got a shock," Mr Gibson told the Court. "For 'l've known him for some time, and he's an honest and" very highly respected citizen. I'm prepared to accept his explanation that he picked the ticket up on the ground and went to cash it. ... . I don't think he altered the-number." The Explanation. Counsel for the accused, Mr ,C. S. Thomas, said he understood that the case was partly intended to be a'warning to all those who went on racecourses, and believed that the. tickets they picked up became their own. "I venture to say that' 999 people in every I 1000 who go on a racecourse 'would consider that if they found a ticket with the winning number they would be justified in cashing it," he said. '.'They would be very surprised if they were told that such action was theft." In England, he went on, it would be questionable if that constituted theft, but under New Zealand law it did. .."Counsel said that there were many people who made a practice of picking up tickets on racecourses, especially if there had been a protest entered or a dispute after the race. These;'people would be very surprised to be told that an attempt to cash a ticket which had been'found'.was theff. •■'' Now, his 1 client, he said, had been walking across the ground with a friend when he picked up a ticket. He was not wearing his.vspectacle's, and did not notice that the ticket bore the'number One, which had been altered, before 'he picked it up, to 1 Four., Four, was the number worn.by the winning,ihoirse in a certain race, and he thought he had made a "find." Therefore; in all good faith he went to the ticket-box- and attempted to cash it. Suppression of Name. "He has been in one position for 34 years," said Mr Thomas, and he is very well known. In view of the special circumstances of the case, and the man's previous good record, I would ask your Worship to suppress his name from the papers." The presiding Magistrate, Mr H..A. Young, said all the man was charged with was that he had found a ticket, which he believed to bear the winning number, and had attempted to cash it. However, the .'clerk had detected . the alteration and .the police had been-sum-moned. His Worship. thought. ,it was a case which .could be met by a conviction, and said: " The publicity given ,would be out of all proportion to the offence. Therefore I think it is a case in which the name should ,be suppressed." . The defendant was convicted and ordered to pay the costs, and his name was suppressed., .