" IDLER AND FRAUD"

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 72, 26 March 1931, Page 15

" IDLER AND FRAUD"

HOSPITAL CHEATED

FREE BOARD AND LODGING

Tlie extraordinary story of how a man obtained board and lodging for over a month as an alleged patient at the Wellington Hospital was heard in the Magistrate's Court to-day, when Archibald Percy Clarke pleaded guilty to being a rogue and vagabond, in. that he imposed on the Wellington Hospital Board by falsely representing that he was a refugee from Napier and that he had lost his memory.

Sub-Inspector Ward said that on the day after the earthquake the accused called at the detective office and asked for a permit to go to Napier. As the accused was known to the detectives, this was refused, but on Sth February, when a medical oflicer of the Hospital Board was at. the Thorndon railway station, the accused was handed over to him by the Red Cross as a■ refugee from Napier. A relief train had just got, in, and it was not known whether. the accused had actually got to Napier and come back, by the train or had been in the crowd at the station and forced himself upon the Red Cross. Tlie accused claimed to have lost his memory and to be suffering from shock and hysteria. He said that his house at Napier had been burnt in the earthquake, and he did not know where his wife and family were. . Clarke was kept at the Hospital until 14th March, when he was sent to Porirua as a voluntary patient. He stayed there for four days, and then the Hospital authorities.sent him.back to Wellington, as they could find no signs of insanity. He remained as a patient in Wellington Hospital until a few days ago, when, as the.result of a message from the authorities, a detective went to the Hospita 1 and there recognised the accused, who was using an assumed name. "The Hospital authorities," said the subinspector, "say his conduct was very bad. He was disobedient, used filthy lauguage to the nurses, and, shamming insanity, he had to have a special room and attendants. The'total cost of maintaining him was£36 11s 2d." When'he was interviewed the accused said he had hurt his leg in a motor-car accident some months ago, and,when:he was in Napier he thought it would be a good chance to get it treated. The Hospital, however, said that they could see nothing wrong with his leg. As far as was known the accused was a single man. "I didn't come down from Napier in the train; I came by ambulance," said the accused, when asked if he had anything to say. Mr. E. Page, S.M.: "This man has a substantial list of previous convictions. His recent conduct shows him to be an idler and a fraud." Clarke was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment.