FRAUD ADMITTED

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 105, 30 October 1935, Page 13

FRAUD ADMITTED

UNAUTHORISED TELEGRAM

''Could you wire me 30s today. Cross boat tonight. Coming home." A telegram couched in these terms and sent to Invercargill j by Eric Kissell, a stable hand, aged 36,1 led to his appearance before Mr. E. D. Mosley, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court today. He was charged that with intent, to defraud he sent a telegram on July 25 in the name of Martin Robert Francis without his authority- . . Kissell, for whom Mr. P. D. N. VerschafTelt appeared, pleaded guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. He was allowed bail on his own recognisance of £25. Detective-Sergeant L. B. Revell said that the accused had been arrested in Christchurch. When interviewed at the Wellington prison he made a statement relating to the present charge. The detective-sergeant produced a telegram signed "Matt" and also a receipt for a money-order telegram for 30s signed "M. Francis." He also read a statement made by Mrs. F. E. Francis, of Invercargill, who stated that she received the telegram in the morning and the money was sent in the afternoon to the address on the telegram. Her son was in Wellington in July. The writing on the original telegram was not her son's. Other statements produced and read by the detective-sergeant included one from Martin Robert Francis, who stated that he had not sent the telegram, which was not in his handwriting. Kissell was a friend of his, and the only one who knew his home address. He felt fairly sure that Kissell wrote the telegram and signed for the money.