Woman found not guilty

Press, 19 July 1979, Page 5

Woman found not guilty

A woman broke down and sobbed yesterday in the ; Supreme Court when a jury i found her not guilty on two charges of forging cheques and two of false pretence by : obtaining money and goods with valueless cheques. Mr Justice Casey dis- ■ charged Shirley Ann Blackler. aged 37, a solo mother, on charges of_ forging r cheque for $23.58 in tire name of D. I. Eggleton and! making it payable to the: 1 Rowley Avenue Super- i market, false pretence in-! volving the same cheque,] forgery of a cheque for $7O. | and false pretence by pre-;’ renting the valueless cheque] for $7O to Supervalue in the Barrington Street Mall. ( Mr N. W. Williamson ap- , peared for the Crown, and Mr J. Rutledge for Black- , !er who pleaded not guilty to the four charges.

The jury took one hour and three-quarters to reach its verdict. i Opening his case Mr Williamson said that on October 27, 1978, Diane Isobel Eggleton, a library assistant, had her handbag containing about 850 and her cheque book stolen from the lounge bar of the Blenheim Road Motor Inn. Two months later a| woman presented one of the t Jstolen cheques for $23.58 at I i the Rowley Avenue Super- | market. She wrote out the ■ cheque in the presence of Marie Edna Brown, the owner of the supermarket. Because the woman had no means of identification Mrs Brown became suspicious and arranged for a member of the staff to follow the woman to her car and take the number. The staff member offered to carry the . woman's groceries out to the car, but she declined the offer. The number of the car was ; handed to the police who! traced the vehicle to Black- ; ler. She denied presenting j the cheque at the super-1 1 market, but she was identiI fled from photographs by two ■members of the staff as the woman who had written out the cheque. On November 15 a woman with two children presented

a cheque for $7O from the stolen cheque book at Supervalue in the Barrington Street Mall. She received groceries valued at $20.42! and $49.58 in cash. She] claimed that the cheque was hers as she had done some] house-keeping for a woman.] The cheque proved to be! valueless, Mr Williamson! I said.

Blackler said in evidence; that she was a solo mother! and worked part-time as a 1 housemaid at the New City Hotel. In November she was not short of money because! she was receiving a domestic purposes benefit of $156 and; earned $27 a week at the hotel. She could always turn to her former husband if she was short of money.

Blackler denied forging or presenting the two cheques and gave a detailed account of her movements on the two ■ days the offences involving; the cheques were committed.; There were times when; her young brother. Tony' Humm, who had been out of' work for about six months.: borrowed her car. He had ! many girl-friends. One of; those girls had fair hair like the woman who cashed the cheques. Blackler said that she had not seen her brother since early April. He had been in trouble with the police.