FALSE PRETENCES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 69, 18 September 1936, Page 11

FALSE PRETENCES

SEVEN MONTHS' GAOL MANY PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS J •-■■ "You seem to be skilled in-'the.-art of obtaining money by false 1 prete'nces;< Most of your previous convictions relate to this class of offence," said Mr. W. F. Stilwell, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court today, when studying the list of previous convictions of John Arthur Crawford, a canvasser, aged 47, who pleaded guilty to flour charges of obtaining money by false pretences.

Th.e charges against Crawford were: That on August 26 he.obtained frbm Ernest William* West 10s by representing that he was authorised to take money and collect orders on behalf of the Civic Press Printing and Publishing Company; that he obtained £1 from Jeannie Terris by a false pretence on August 27; that on August 17 he obtained 10s from Walter Ellis; and that he obtained £3 by similar means from Marie Qean on August 11. Detective-Sergeant L. B. Revell, who conducted the. prosecution, said that last August the accused approached Mr. Cochran, proprietor of the Civic Press, with a scheme for malting a ""cover for the "School Journal." Mr. Cochran was impressed with the idea, and agreed to go on it, if permission was obtained from the Education Department. This the accused undertook to do, and Mr. Cochran had a sample , cover made, which he stamped with the Civic Press stamp.

The accused did not, however, approach the Education Department, but proceeded, at once to sell advertise-ment-space and collect money,,introducing himself as the accredited agent of the company. , According to Detective W. Ritchie, who conducted the inquiry, the accused was thought to have collected at least four other sums of money. The other people had not yet come forward, but DetectiveSergeant Revell said that he thought they would do so through the publicity given to the case. The accused had 48 previous convictions. "I was only doing the best I could," said the accused, in explanation. In respect to the charge involving £3, the accused was sentenced to four months' imprisonment, and on each of the other three he was sentenced to one month's imprisonment, the terms to be cumulative.