A FOOLISH ACT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 138, 14 June 1930, Page 10

A FOOLISH ACT

WEAK ATTEMPT TO GET MONEY

"The escapade shows little or no evidence of crime but mere foolishness," remarked Mr. A. J. Mazengarb to Mr. T. B; M'Neil, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court to-day when defending a young man, aged 20, on a charge of attempting to obtain £10 10s from the Bank of New Zealand by means of a valueless cheque. The accused pleaded guilty. Detective-Sergeant Tricklebank said that the accused had stolen a cheque from his father's cheque book and had filled it in and presented it at the Te Aro branch of the bank. The teller became suspicious, and asked the accused to call again. In the meantime the police were informed. The accused was 20 years of age and came from a highly respectable family. Mr. Mazeugarb said that the accused had a few small debts, and acting on a sudden temptation, ho had filled in the cheque. The writing was nothing like his father s, and the signature was not quite the same as his father's. The accused had not attempted 'to pass the cheque off on any tradesman, but had taken it straight to the bank, where, of course, his weak attempt had instantly aroused suspicion. Before the accused had been interviewed by detectives he had made a clean breast of the affair to his father, and it was when the father had gone along to the bank to see what could be done about it that he had met the detective inquiring into the matter. Counsel considered that the root of the trouble was the fact that the accused had too much money to spend on himself. His debts were quite small, and had he gone to his father they would have been lixed up. "Even before counsel mentioned it, I thought it was a case in which I-might properly extend probation," remarked the Magistrate in admitting the accused to probation for two years. Referring to an application for the suppression of the accused's name, Mr. M'Neil said that it was not the practice to make an order for suppression for the benefit of an accused person's family; it was in the interests of the accused himself, so that if he had made a lapse be would get the benefit of the suppression to give liim another start. In the present case the boy was in a position in the_ city, and, "taking all the circumstances. into consideration, I think I might suppress the name in order to give him another chance," concluded Mr. M'Neil.