CHARGES

Press, Volume C, Issue 29672, 16 November 1961, Page 17

CHARGES

Young Man For Trial

Leslie John Keeley, aged 22. a workman, was committed to the next sitting of the Supreme Court for trial by Messrs A. A. Harrow and L. C. Fulton, Justices of the Peace, when depositions «n 19 charges of counselling and procuring the committing of false pretences. against Keeley, were heard in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. His bail was renewed.

Keeley was represented by Mr B. G. Dingwall and Senior-Sergeant G. M. Cleary prosecuted. The offences were alleged to have taken place between October 2 and October 4.

Senior-Sergeant Cleary said that the prosecution would show that the accused in the company of another youth induced, two 15-year-old girls to pass valueless cheques to obtain goods and money. The girls were immature and did as was suggested. The girls were told to buy small articles so the two youths could obtain money to go to Wellington. SeniorSergeant Cleary said. He said that the charges were somewhat unusual in that they were brought under Section 90 of the Crimes Act which charged a person with counselling other persons to commit an offence.

Nineteen persons, including shop managers, and shop assistants, gave evidence of receiving valueless cheques fn eity shops on the three dates mentioned in the charges. The articles the girls had bought with the cheques included beads, baby’s clothes, shoes, an Elvis Presley long-playing record, a travelling bag, girls' clothes and toilet articles. Cheques Presented

David Henry Dudley Dedrich, an official of the Bank of New Zealand, said that 23 cheques were presented at the bank for payment from a cheque book earlier issued to Keeley. The witness said the cheques involved a sum of £147 8s and there were insufficient funds in the account to meet them. The two 15-year-old girls who passed the cheques and who pleaded guilty to the charges in the Children’s Court gave evidence of Keeley writing out the cheques and of the other youth. Peter John Joseph Turner, signing them. One of the girls, whose names were suppressed, said that noone asked them to pass the cheques but “we just said we would do it.” The same witness said she had given the change from the cashed cheques to Keeley. It amounted to about £42, she said.

Asked by Senior-Sergeant Cleary her reason for pausing the cheque* she said she was infatuated with Turner at the time and now realised she bad been very foolish. Turner, who pleaded guilty in the Magistrate's Court to the same 19 charges that Keeley is charged with and is at present serving a term of Borstal training, told the Court that he had signed the name "W. J. Reynolds" to some of the cheques. He said he had told one of the girls to cash the cheques so they could get money to go to Wellington, and that he had later burnt the cheque butts. AU the change from the cashed cheques had gone to Keeley, Turner said. Detective Constable J. W. Wooder Mid he had apprehended the accused and Turner at the Christchurch Railway Station on October 4. Taken to the C. 1.8. office Keeley denied getting the girls to pass the cheques. He said he would do hie "own dirty work.” the witness said. He told witness he had lost his cheque book three weeks earlier.