CHANGE FOR CHEQUES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 24, 29 January 1924, Page 6

CHANGE FOR CHEQUES

ALLEGED SYSTEMATIC FRAUD.

(SI TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.)

GISBORNE, This Day. ' Allegations of systematic fraud throughout New Zealand, extended over six years, are made against a man whom the police have in custody on charges of forgery and false pretences, to three of which charges he has pleaded guilty. The police, state that he has confessedrespecting other cases. He operated in Masterton, Wellington, Morrinsville, Matamata, Wanganui, Gisborne, and Auckland, and may be taken to other towns for identification. His favourite method, the police state, was to write out a cheque for an, amount likely to be paid to a farm labourer, and drawn on a well-known estate in the district. He \vould\probably go to a hotel licensee or storekeeper on Saturday afternoon, or on a bank holiday, and give a fairly big order to avoid suspicion, and receive the balance in cash. Perhaps several of these valueless cheques would be tendered, and by Monday morning, when the banks opened, he would have disappeared. It is stated that there are nearly one hundred charges of falge pretences and forgery pending from various towns in the North Island.