FORGED TICKETS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25250, 31 July 1947, Page 3

FORGED TICKETS

PRESENTATION AT TOTALISATOR ACCUSED PLEADS GUILTY (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 30. Earl Dodds, alias O’Neill, alias Orchid, a labourer, appeared before Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., on six charges of forging totalisator tickets during the Wellington Racing Club’s winter meeting, and on a charge that on March 21 he stole a totalisator ticket-issuing drum from the Awapuni racecourse. He pleaded guilty to all charges. On the first six charges he was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence, and on the last charge he was remanded until he had been sentenced in the Supreme Court. Several rolls of totalisator paper, forged tickets, plastic wood moulds, plasticine, impressions, and other paraphernalia were produced in the Court. Evidence was given by a totalisator clerk that Dodds had come to his window and presented six £1 tickets, three for a place and three fq/ a win on the No. 15 horse, Sari, which ran in the eighth race on July 5. He noticed that the code word for the race, "Bimbo,” was on the lefthand side instead of the right, and also printed upside down. Not liking the look of the tickets, he referred them to high authorities. Dodds was asked to return in half an hour, and when he did so was told the tickets were still held up, and he left his name and address. Dodds told the witness that he had got all the tickets together from the one window, but they had got a little wet.

Quality of £5 Tickets Technical evidence was given by another witness who identified a number of forged and test tickets produced for his inspection. The printing was imperfect. The colour too light, and the code word upside down, but in respects the £1 tickets were correctly laid out. He considered the £5 forgeries were good enough to pay out on. Evidence was given by a detective that Dodds told him he had never been in a totalisator before. He knew nothing of how they worked. On searching Dodds’s bach he found a considerable quantity of printing materials, ink remover, violet endorsing ink, pieces of paper, and totalisator paper.

The detective said he picked up a suitcase at the failway station belonging to Dodds, containing plastic wood and totalisator paper. Dodds then informed him there was further equipment in the lavatory of the railway station at Trentham. Here were found 12 forged £5 tickets. The accused said he had intended to present them also.

At Awapuni early in the year he broke through’ the totalisator window and investigated the procedure of issuing and printing the tickets, later doing the same thing at Trentham. He decided that the Wellington tickets were easier to forge than the ones at Awapuni, so he oegan the experiment, eventually succeeding in making a reasonable ticket.

At his first attempt he was caught out by a ticket which he had intended to throw away, the detective said. Dodds had helped in clearing the matter up.