COMPLAINT TO POST OFFICE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22431, 18 June 1938, Page 4

COMPLAINT TO POST OFFICE

LABOURER’S FRAUDULENT STATEMENT STORY OF SENDING MONEY IN PACKAGE

' (PBESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, June 17. After making a complaint to the postal authorities about a registered package, Wallace James Clifford True, a labourer, aged 34, appeared on summons before Mr W. R. McKean, S.M., in the Magistrate’s. Court, charged

with making a fraudulent statement that it contained money. The accused pleaded not guilty. William George Leland gave evidence of investigating the complaint and ascertaining that the package was delivered and that it contained no money. Acting Detective-Sergeant Aplin produced a statement in which the accused said he intended to put £1 17s 6d, representing three weeks’ rent, in a parcel. He thought he had Included two notes and three halfcrowns. Since checking over his expenditure at the time of the incident, he felt satisfied that he had not included the money in the packet. The accused gave evidence that at the time of making the complaint to the Post Office he felt convinced that he had put the money in the package. He continued to think this up till the

time he was asked by a detective to check his expenditure. The police stated that the accused had been 10 times previously before the Court for theft and fraud, but in the last six years, since he had been married, he had been convicted only once.

Counsel said that force of circumstances might have made the accused do the silly thing he had done. "Probably, he got behind with his rent and this caused this stupid idea to enter his mind,” said the Magistrate. “There is a provision in the Post and Telegraph Act for anyone making . a fraudulent statement or complaint to be liable to a term of imprisonment.

"It is very little use sending the accused to prison, although he really deserves -it,” the Magistrate added, imposing a fine of £2, and ordering him to pay costs.