VALUELESS CHEQUES

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 149, 21 December 1932, Page 11

VALUELESS CHEQUES

MAN AND WIFE CHARGED

WOMAN SENT TO PRISON

\Described by Detective-Sergeant Revell as the "greatest impostors' we have had round this country for many years", William JEdwin Goodwin, alia 3 Russell," aged 39, iand' Olive Forbes Goodwin, alias Reid, alias Elsie Kussell, aged 36, appeared, before Mr. E. Page, S.M., at the- Magistrate's Court to-day on a joint charge of fraudulently obtaining £11 ils from j., H. Palmer by means of a valueless cheque. The female accused was further charged with obtaining a cheque for £2 15s from Householders' Mart, Ltd., by false pretences'. Tho female accused: admitted the offences, but her husband. pleaded no.t guilty. '' '•'..'-. Evidence for the police showed that on 3rd December the female accused gave John Hicks Palmer, a grocer of Brooklyn,- an .order for some groceries. In payment of- the order she gave Mm a cheque and obtained £11 11s change. The grocer found that the cheque* was valueless, and went to the Goodwins' home to get his money back. He found Mr. Goodwin hiding in the garden and obtained from him the sum of £3 odd, which he said,. was all that he had. When Detective Robinson" interviewed Mrs. Goodwin in connection with the matter she said that her husband had mado out the cheque and had given it to her to pay rent and buy food. In a'further .statement Mrs., Goodwin said that she had found a cheque form and had filled it in for £10, signing, it with the name "A.MaTtin." She then purchased some ; furniture, and received a cheque for £2 15s as change. She said that she did not cash this cheque; as sho was afraid that payment on it wonld be, stopped. Referring to the cheque she had given to the grocer, Mrs. Goodwin said that her husband had bought it for .her at a chemist's for 2d,. as she had told him, that sho wanted to- have, a joke with it at a party. Her husband was unaware that she had filled it ml and cashed it. ',-.- -■ . ( ' ','■':'■ In an ' explanation from the dock as to why he Aad hidden in the garden when the grocer visited his home, the male accused said that he had , recently been fined £3 and costs, and was going to/ pay the costs in a day or so. ' ' ■■..;" Mr. Page said that a comparison of the handwriting on the cheque and Mrs. Goodwin's signature on the statement made by her to the police made it clear, that the cheque was .signed by her. The, inference, he thought, was that the first statement made by Mrs. Goodwin implicating her husband was incorrect. There was no satisfactory evidence, said Mr. Page, on which" he could coß.yiet : the male accused. The chargo against ■ him would be dismissed: Detective-Sergeant Revell said that the female accused hail quite a lonp; "list" for obtaining credit by fraud and for vagrancy. ' The Magistrate sentenced her to six months' imprisonment on each of the two charges, the terms to be concurrent. . . "■■.■-