FALSE-STATEMENTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1937, Page 11

FALSE-STATEMENTS

WORK ON WHARVES

UNDER ANOTHER NAME

"This is another instance of a man drawing sustenance under his own name and working on the wharves under another name," said Mr. E. A. Selman, district employment officer, when Joseph S,tephenson Skinner was charged before Mr. J. H. Luxford, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court today with three offences of making false statements for the purpose of obtaining benefit: under the Employment Promotion Act, 1936. The defendant wrote to the Court and pleaded guilty.

' Mr. Selman explained that the defendant had earned substantial wages and was on the books of the Wellington Harbour Board. For the . three weeks referred to in the charges, the defendant's wages from the board were £5 10s lOd, £2 Is 2d, and £5 8s 2d respectively. . The highest amount declared to the Department was 18s.

: Mr. J.- J. McLean said that during a period of four months there was only one man on the Harbour Board books known as Stringer.

Mr. S. Hall, of the Post and Telegraph Department, handwriting expert, said that the "J. Stringer" signed' in the Harbour Board books, 'and the "J. S. Skinner" in the Department's records were signed by the same man.

The Magistrate: This case is bad enough to have'been brought under the criminal law.

Mr. Selman: The defendant would have been so charged, your .Worship, except for the expense involved in bringing the man down from Auckland, where he is at present on, sustenance, or conducting the case up there."

The .defendant was . convicted and fined £5 and costs' on each, of the three charges.