POSED AS DOCTOR

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 73, 27 March 1931, Page 11

POSED AS DOCTOR

MONEY BY FALSE PRETENCES

FRIENDS "VERY TRUSTING"

Posing as a doctor with £500 in the bank at Nelson and considerable resources in England, Ellis Jones obtained a total amount of £30 from two men as well as board and lodging at a city hotel for a considerable time. Joms, described as a chemist, aged 67, appeared before Mr. E. Page, S.M;, in the Magistrate's Court to-day on two charges of false pretences. Ho was ■convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within two years. Jones and another man, named Black, said Sub-Inspector Ward, camo from England on the same boat. The accused told Black he was an M.D. of London, and that he was •coming to New Zealand to operate upon his daughter.: Ho said he had £500 in a bank at Nelson, and also ■expected some drafts from- London. On arriving in New Zealand Jones' went to a place at the back of Nelson, where his daughter and her husband had a farm. While there the accused 'wrote to Black describing the operation he had performed on his daughter, and saying that he had had to transfer the £500 in the bank to clear off his son-in-law's mortgage. Some drafts he was expecting had not arrived. As a result of a request Black sent the accused some money. Jones came to Wellington, and altogether got £22 out of Black. Black introduced the accused to another man, who advanced Jones £8 on the strength of his representations. The accused also incurred a hotel debt amounting to £40. The accused was not a doctor, although he said he was a chemist. Ho had come to New Zealand to reside with his daughter,, but had found the place too quiet, and he had come to Wellington. "It appears that the two complainants were very trusting, as ihey knew the accused was stopping at a hotel and drinking very much," concluded the Sub-Inspector. Mr. D. Perry, who appeared for the accused, made a plea for probation. Nothing was known against the accused previously, and he had become known as a doctor entirely by accident. The accused's daughter would be prepared to let him live with her. Unfortunately the accused was not in a position to make restitution, as he was absolutely without money. After hearing the Probation Officer (Mr. T. P. Mills), the Magistrate convicted Jones and ordered him to come up for sentence if called upon within two years. He is to go' and live, with .his daughter ' during that time/ / ;