Photo fraud admitted

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33534, 15 May 1974, Page 3

Photo fraud admitted

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, May 14.

A woman who answered an advertisement offering photograph enlargements for $4 each was sent balloons and instructions to insert the photographs into the balloons and blow them up to the required size, the Magistrate’s Court was told.

Before Mr P. M. Browne, S.M., Robert Charles Buckeridge, aged 38, a general labourer, admitted obtaining $54 from a woman by falsely representing by an advertisement in “N.Z. Truth” that he was able to perform a process of enlarging photographs at $4 each.

Buckeridge was convicted and remanded in custody to May 27 for a probation report and sentence. He was not represented by counsel. Sergeant A. B. Edwards said Buckeridge placed four advertisements in the newspaper from March 12, advertising a “new and unique process of photo enlarging.” It invited people to send the photograph they wanted enlarged, the dimensions of the enlargement, and $4.

An elderly woman forwarded a cheque for $36 with nine copies of a photograph of her dead daughter, requesting that the enlargements be completed by Easter, as she wanted them as presents for relatives. A day or so later she wrote and asked whether the photographs could be plastic mounted, and received a letter saying that plastic mounts were in stock at $2 each. The woman then forwarded a further cheque for $lB. Subsequently, she received a cardboard box containing [ nine coloured rubber bal-[ loons, each of which was ini

a small plastic dish. They also contained instructions to insert the photograph into the balloon and blow it up to the required size. When spoken to by the police, Buckeridge had received a total of $119.50. He told the police he thought it was a joke which had gone sour.

Buckeridge told the Court that he had receipts for money he had returned. “I wanted to draw public attention to these advertisement frauds,” he said. The Magistrate: Looking through your history, I think any excuse you give me would be a reconstruction of your offence.