FALSE PRETENCES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 99, 23 October 1940, Page 11

FALSE PRETENCES

CHINESE MERCHANT FOUND GUILTY

AN UNUSUAL ADDRESS

Jim Pei Lo, a Chinese merchant, who was on trial in the Supreme Court on Monday and yesterday on three charges of obtaining money on false pretences, by obtaining £198 10s from Charles Henry Parsonage on May 10 and May 22, £135 from Gordon May on May 13 and May 20, and £150. from Moy Fong Gee on July 9, was found guilty by the jury yesterday evening on all three charges, and was remanded for one week.

In his evidence for the Crown, Ser-geant-Detective Murray had stated that the prisoner had told him on one occasion that he had no banking account, but that he had money "in safe keeping," but that it would take a fortnight to make it available. He would not disclose its whereabouts.

His Honour, Mr. Justice Ostler, remarked that he was convinced that the prisoner still had some hundredss of pounds in his possession, and whether he was prepared to give up that money would make a difference in his punishment.

The whole of yesterday until late in the afternoon was occupied in hearing the evidence for the Crown. When the prisoner was asked if he wished to give or call evidence he declined, but elected to address the jury from the dock.

"When I was here yesterday I felt like a fish in a boiling pail," he said, commencing his address. "It is the first time in my life I have been amidst all these surroundings." Recalling his childhood he spoke of the precepts taught to him by his oldfashioned Chinese father, and the importance of the family name. If one made a fool of oneself, said his father, he should acknowledge it; if one was right—he should fight. He was fighting now, but felt alone in a foreign country. "I can take it" was a Western saying, but Confucius said more: "If anyone spits in your face, do not mind, do not wipe it off, let it dry."

"Gentlemen of the jury," he continued, "I want you, as men with world-wide experience, to treat me in accord with your ideas of justice." He went on to speak of the contracts he had made and of the possibilities of working up a large business in exports and imports, without competition. He did not believe in presentiments, but had felt, before he came to this country, that misfortune would come to him. He had expected that in a few years in New Zealand he would have accumulated capital which would have enabled him to control the Eastern markets.

After the accused had addressed the jury for nearly an hour and was deep in the history of family troubles, his Honour said that he had given him an extraordinary liberty. For the last half-hour the accused had not said anything that meant anything at all. "I think that you are getting more liberty than even a foreigner is entitled to," he said. Further admonished thus, soon afterwards the accused said that he had intended to remain in New Zealand, "and so, gentlemen of the jury, I leave my fate in your hands." His Honour, addressing the jury, said that for a long while the Court had listened to many things that had nothing to do with the case, but he had felt that it was due to the prisoner to accord him all the licence he could, much more than he would have given a European. His Honour having reviewed the evidence for the prosecution, the jury retired, and returned about two hours later with the verdict of guilty.

Mr. C. H. Weston, K.C., with him Mr. W. R. Birks, represented the Crown. The prisoner conducted his own case.