VALUELESS CHEQUES ISSUED

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25971, 26 November 1949, Page 2

VALUELESS CHEQUES ISSUED

TWO MEN SENTENCED (Neto Zealand Press Association) c- ♦ NAPIER, November 25. Sixteen valueless cheques of a total va ue of £ 155 Is Bd, issued in Tauranga, Paeroa, Rotorua, and Napier within one month, caused the appearance in the Magistrate’s Court this morning of two men on a number of charges of obtaining credit by false pretences. The accused were Jack Joseph Curson, aged 27, a former Army lieutenant, and a warder at Mount Eden Prison, and Charles Williem McKenzie, aged 21. a cook. Both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 18 months’ reformative detention. Curson appeared on 16 charges.

Senior-Detective D. McKenzie said that Curson went to the towns mentioned in company with a girl who had already been dealt with, and he or the girl purchased goods from shops and cashed valueless cheques in payment, receiving substantial sums in change. Seven cheques were cashed in this fashion and the pair came to Napier, where Curson and McKenzie bought goods and cashed nine cheques of a total value of more than £lOO in a single hour late one afternoon.

McKenzie appeared cn six charges relating to the Napier cheques only. Senior-Detective McKenzie said that the accused were admitted to bail when they first anpeared on these charges and attempted to issue more valueless cheques after they were released. They were apprehended as they were preparing to leave Napier by bus.