SENT TO GAOL

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 290, 7 September 1928, Page 3

SENT TO GAOL

“.MAN OF BAD CHARACTER” Only recently discharged from prison in Auckland, Joseph Ridout, a seaman, who was described by Sub-Inspector Lander as a “man of bad character,” made another appearance in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, this time to answer a charge of being a rogue and. vagabond in that he tried to impose on Robert Peter Stewart .by means of a false representation with a view to obtaining money. Sub-Inspector Lander said that on August 18 accused called on Mr. Stewart, a company director, and produced a letter which purported to have been written by a Nurse Wilson, Abel Smith Street. The letter stated that confinement expenses for accused’s wife would amount to £ll Is. for two weeks, and that £5 cash would be needed on entry to the hospital. Accused told Mr. Stewart that he was going to a position with Brownlee’s Ltd., Kilbirnie, and asked him if he would advance the money mentioned in the letter. Defendant, added Mr. Lander, had once been employed by Mr. Stewart, who was suspicious of the request. He asked accused for the letter, but Ridout would not leave it with him. Inquiries having been made, it was found that there was no Nurse Wilson, and that accused was not going to Brownlee’s. When interviewed, accused admitted that his statement was false. The address given by him was that of a Chinese fruiterer. Remarkin'? that Ridout had a long list of convictions for offences of all sorts of classes, the Magistrate (Mr. E. Page, S.M.) sent him to prison for six months.