Solicitor Charged With Forgery

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30196, 30 July 1963, Page 3

Solicitor Charged With Forgery

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON, July 29. A Huntly barrister and solicitor, James Corbett Black, aged 55, pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court at Hamilton today before Mr Justice Richmond to 12 charges of altering cheques between November, 1961, and March, 1963, with the intention that they should be acted on as genuine, thereby committing forgery. The cheques alleged to have been altered were valued at £7O 18s 2d and their value was allegedly changed to £230 18s 2d, a difference of £l6O. Mr K. L Sandford prosecuted. and Mr R. K. Davidson, Q.C., with him Mr J. E. S. Allert, appeared for Black.

Mr Sandford said that in 1958 Black became secretary of a small private company called Postlewaight Properties, Ltd., which had a fish shop at Taupiri. Black lived in Taupiri and had an office in Huntly. It was his practice every Wednesday evening to call at Postlewaight’s shop and collect the takings for the week. He banked them next morning at Huntly.

One of his duties was to prepare a cheque for £6 which Postlewaight paid to his wife as housekeeping money or for director’s fees. This cheque was paid into Mrs Postlewaight’s bank account and she drew from it such money as she required.

No fewer than 74 of these cheques for £6 were drawn in favour of Mrs Postlewaight, said Mr Sandford. Sometimes there was a varia-

tion in the value of the cheques. Investigations showed that on eight occasions the £6 cheques had been altered to £l6 and that amount had been debited to Postlewaight’s account. On two occasions cheques drawn on behalf of Mrs Postlewaight had been altered from £6 to £36 and from £6 to £26. In two cases, added Mr Sandford, there had been a genuine alteration and these had been initialled by Mr Postlewaight. These alterations had been made to cover up larger alterations in the two cheques. Black claimed that the surplus amounts he had received were for secretarial fees, Mr Sandford said. Wilfred Allan Postlewaight, a fish shop proprietor, of Taupiri, said Black was appointed secretary of his company. He asked Black what he was going to charge but no answer was given. The question was put several times, but Black did hot tell-’him. The witness said he offered him some shares in the company and Black replied that he would see about it later. The witness said he asked Black to explain why one cheque had been altered from £6 to £l6. “Black acted like a maniac. He threw his hands about. Then he wrote some figures on a sheet of paper,” the witness said

No authority had been given by the witness for the alteration of the cheques and no mention was made of secretarial dues.

The hearing will be continued tomorrow.