POLICE WARNING ON INVALID CHEQUES

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30543, 11 September 1964, Page 1

POLICE WARNING ON INVALID CHEQUES

A warning to Christchurch businessmen to check carefully before accepting cheques from strangers was issued by the Chief-Detective (Detective Senior-Sergeant S. B. McEwen) yesterday. “Local businessmen are be-i coming rather lax,” he said.; “We have had numerous complaints during the last 10 days from business firms which have accepted cheques and found them valueless.” Unknown customers, particularly those who wished to cash a cheque for a big sum when buying an article of small value, could reasonably have no objection if the shop assistant asked the customer to sign his name and put his address on the back of the cheque and identify himself with a driver’s licence or other [document, Mr McEwen said. : “Shopkeepers say that they 'lose business if they do not

accept cheques. This is a reasonable argument if reasonable precautions are taken,” he said.

The C. 1.8. is inquiring into 50 cases involving the issuing of valueless cheques, most of them in Christchurch. Some of the inquiries involve scores of valueless cheques drawn by the same person. In many cases, the chequebooks used have been stolen.

Shopkeepers, in particular, who cash cheques from strangers for an amount greatly in excess of the amount of goods purchased are “looking for trouble,” according to detectives. “A corner-store proprietor who cashed a cheque for £2O from a total stranger who bought a packet of cigarettes and pocketed the change had no reason to be so surprised I when the cheque ‘bounced’,” ia detective said.