STORY OF A RACEHORSE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 186, 4 May 1933, Page 13

STORY OF A RACEHORSE

Showman Found Guilty of Intent to Defraud REMANDED FOR SENTENCE Dominion Special Service. Palmerston North, May 3. The story of bow be had been induced to give £450 to a chance acquaintance to place on a horse, the name of which he did not know, was related by Jacob Ruttiman, a Swiss farmer, when Edward Mountford Tunnecliffe, a showman, aged 45 years, appeared in the Supreme Court this morning to answer charges of stealing from him sums of money totalling £450. Alternative charges of conspiring with persons unknown to defraud Ruttiman of the £450 were preferred against accused. A charge of conspiring with persons unknown to defraud William Drysdale of £lOO was also preferred. Accused, who was not represented by counsel, pleaded not guilty. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the charges of conspiring to defraud. Accused was remanded until to-morrow for sentence.

Jacob Ruttiman, farmer, of Taranaki, said he had met accused on April IS of last year while travelling to Wellington by train. Accused had represented himself as a racehorse owner, and said he was taking a horse to the Nelson races. Accused had said the horse was not a Phar Lap. but was a good horse, on which he had won about £2OOO the year before on the "books.” Witness accompanied accused to Nelson. On the boat he had been introduced to a Mr. Scott, a bookmaker, and a Mr. Davis, whom Wallace said was the trainer of his horse. Ruttiman said lie had given Scott a cheque for £lOO to place on Wallace’s horse and had given M allace £lO for a double on Landmark and Wallace’s horse. On returning to Wellington he had been persuaded to go to Hawera to get more money. He had secured a cheque for £l5O from a friend and £7O from the Post Office Savings Bank. On returning to Palmerston North he had handed these two cheques and a further cheque for £l2O drawn on his own account to Scott to place on Wallace’s horse. Witness said he was sitting in an hotel in Palmerston North when W.allace had entered and said: “I am sorry, Jacob, our money is lost.”, Witness said he had Identified accused at the New Plymouth police station as the man he understood to be Wallace. William Drysdale, retired hotelkeeper, of Wairoa, said he knew accused as Tunnecliffe. Accused bad made several successful bets for him on racehorses Later at Palmerston North a friend of Tunnecliffe’s had produced a telegram purporting to have been signed by the jockey Hector Gray regarding a horse which was running at the Takapuna races. He had given Tunnecliffe a cheque for £lOO to place on this horse. Several days later he saw Tunnecliffe at his house and asked him for his cheque back. Accused shut the door on him and told him he was mad. He telegraphed bis bank at. Wairoa to stop payment of the cheque, but he received a reply that the cheque had been paid in. Detective Russell, of Palmerston North, said accused had told him that he had used the name “Wallace.” As far as he knew accused did not own a racehorse for he was precluded from doing so by the rules of the N.Z. Racing Conference. Accused did not call evidence.