Supreme Court MAN FOUND GUILTY OF FALSE PRETENCES

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29273, 3 August 1960, Page 18

Supreme Court MAN FOUND GUILTY OF FALSE PRETENCES

The Post Office had made a number of errors in entering the one transaction in a Post Office Savings Bank pass book, a witness for the prosecution admitted in cross-examination in the Supreme Court yesterday. The witness, a Post Office investigating officer, was giving evidence in the trial of Frederick Charlqa Greenhalgh, aged 42, a machine operator, who was found guilty by * jury of obtaining £2O from the New Zealand Post Office by false pretences on October 2, 1959. ' The jury was not required to return a verdiet on an alternative charge that Greenhalgh had stolen the £2O from the New Zealand Poet Office on or about October 29, 1959. Mr Justice Macarthur remanded Greenhalgh in custody for sentence on August 10.' The jury took 40 minutes to return its verdict. The Crown Prosecutor (Mr P. T. Mahon) appeared for the Crown and Mr B. S. McLaughlin represented Greenhalgh. The circumstances of the charges against Greenhalgh were a little unusual, Mr Mahon told the jury. Greenhalgh had an account at the Post Office Savings Bank and the ; Post Office had an ment whereby customers could withdraw or deposit amounts through their P.OJS.B. passbooks at branch post offices. As he lived .in the Woolston district, Greenhalgh carried out P. 0.5.8. transactions at the Ferry road Post Office and this post office had a specimen card of his signature. On September 25, 1959, Greenhalgh went into this post office and made a £2O deposit in his P.O.S-B. account. He then withdrew £2l in cash and his passbook was stamped accordingly. The clerk in the Ferry road Post Office credited Greenhalgh’s pass book with £2O more than it should have been credited, said Mr Mahon. On October 2, 1959, Greenhalgh went to the Woolston Post Office, instead of the Ferry road Post Office where he usually transacted his business, and made a £2O withdawal. The sarrie day, Greenhalgh went to the Ferry road Post Office and made another withdrawal of £2O. Mr Mahon explained that on September 25, 1959, Greenhalgh had a credit of £23 Is 9d. He made a deposit of £2O, giving him a total credit of £43 Is 9d. He then withdrew £2l and should have had a credit of £22 Is 9d. But the clerk had credited instead of debited him with this latter amount so that his pass book recorded a credit of £42 Is 9d. “Knew of Error”

The Crown contended that Greenhalgh between September 25 and October 2, 1959, looked at his passbook and knew perfectly well that an error had been made. The Crown suggested that Greenhalgh went first to the Woolston Post Office because he thought the error might have been discovered. Greenhalgh then went to the Ferry road Post Office and Withdrew another £2O, dishonestly obtaining it because he knew that the Post Office had 'made an error and also knew the error had not been discovered. The discrepancy was later discovered at the Chief Post Office and a post office investigator saw Greenhalgh. “This was oif October 29, 1959, and Greenhalgh apparently had an answer ready for him,” ,said Mr Mahon. “He told the investigator that he must have banked two cheques at the Ferry road Post Office on September 25. He declined to say what cheque the second was and said it was too long ago and he could not remember it. “Greenhalgh declined to admit he had overdrawn his account and declined to pay the Post office what he owed it." Mr Mahon said the matter was later referred to the police and Greenhalgh was interviewed by Detective A. W. R. Ball on June 9 last. ’ Greenhalgh declined to produce his P. 0.5.8. pass book but did so when the detective produced a search warrant authorising him to seize the book. Greenhalgh at first said he had cashed only one cheque on September 25 but later maintained he had cashed two cheques on that day at the Ferry road post office; Greenhalgh told the detective that he did not know there had been a mistake by the post office until the investigator came to see him.

Evidence along .the lines of Mr Mahon's opening was given by Post Office employees and Detec-tive-Sergeant Ball. The detective-sergeant and post

office investigator, cross-examined by Mr McLaughlin, said there had been a number of mistakes by the post office in regard to the entry of Greenhalgh’s transaction on September 25. “I have never before seen so many errors in the one transaction,” the investigator told defence counsel. Mr McLaughlin called no evidence for the defence. He told the jury that Greenhalgh’s intentions played a big part in the case. If Greenhalgh believed - the money was .owed to him by the post office when he Withdrew it, hs was entered in his pass book,' then he could not be found guilty of false pretences. Similarly, if Greenhalgh believed he had a right to the £2O he had withdrawn that was a good defence to the charge of theft. “The post office made ah appalling number of mistakes' about the one transaction. Greenhalgh is entitled to rely on the balance shewn in his P. 0.5.8. I submit that many depositors, some of you jurors probably, do not check their books before leaving the post office counter, or afterwards.” He submitted that the jury must think Greenhalgh genuinely believed his P. 0.5.8. account to be correct. Would anyone intending to defraud the post office operate on their own account?— it would be tantamount to leaving a business card.