FALSE PRETENCES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 184, 7 May 1928, Page 8

FALSE PRETENCES

LABOURER IN'TROUBLE

Dominion Special’ Service.

Christchurch, May 6.

John Bruce William Miller, a labourer, of Dunedin, appeared before Mr. H. P. Lawry, S.M., to-day on eight charges of false pretences by issuing valueless cheques. The amounts varied between £5 and £lO, hotelkeepers being the victims in each case. The cheques were all drawn on the Union Bank of Australia at Oamaru, ,and represented a total sum of £5l.

The chief detective said that accused was arrested at Auckland for a similar offence committed in Wellington, where he was now waiting sentence. While in Wellington, accused was wanted as a witness in a case in Tiniaru, to which place he was taken under escort. In Timaru, one of the Christchurch charges was discovered, and accused confessed to the other seven. “In a number of cases there would have been no possibility of the police finding that accused issued valueless cheques, but accused said he wanted to make a clean breast of it,” said the chief detective. Miller was convicted and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment on one charge, and on the other seven he was convicted and discharged.