CHEQUE TRANSACTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 37, 12 August 1921, Page 8

CHEQUE TRANSACTIONS

MAGISTRATE INVESTIGATES

CHARGES

Several chavges were made against Bertram Burwood at the Magistrate's Court "yesterday afternoon. Accused, a young man, who was also said to be known as Esmond Catero and Frederick Theodore Poulton, was represented by Mr. A. B. Sievwright. The first charge was of making, at Wellington, on 30th June, a • false document by altering a. genuine cheque for £8 10s on the Commercial Bank to £80 10s,! knowing it to be false) with intent that it should be ,acted upon as genuine. Evidence was given that Burwood opened an account oh 27th Jane at the Commercial Bank by depositinj £20. On 30th June a cheque, payable to Nevill Nicholson, and purporting to be signed by accused, was cashed. It was alleged that tho cheque, as it left the ledger-keeper, was for £8 10a, whereas when cashed it* was for £80\10a. ; The bank code letter on the back of the cheque, a witness stated, was X, which, for that day, represented the figure 8. A member of the bank staff, Edward C. Turner, stated in evidence that he saw Burwood in "the bank that day. James Nesbitt, the ledgerkeeper who dealt with the chgque, was unable to say who handed the cheque to him—as far as he knew, he had not seen the accused before. John Matthews, teller at the bank, identified the accused as the man who presented the cheque. The accused was arrested subsequently in Sydney. In a statement to the police he denied the charge, and) said he had given the cheque for £& 10s to Nicholson in payment for a diamond ring. He pleaded; not guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. On a second charge of stealing a book from the Wellington Public Library he pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to one month's imprisonment.

There were two other charges against him. One was of stealing £63 in money, the 1 property of the National Bank at Auckland, and the other was of forging 1 at Whangarei the signature of G. H. Barton to a cheque on the Bank of New Zealand for : £SB 10s. On these two charges he was remanded to appear' at Auckland on 19th August. .