INNOCENT MAN GAOLED

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 May 1929, Page 5

INNOCENT MAN GAOLED

PARDON & £lOO COMPENSATION.

LONDON, Marell 31.

Mr Ernest Lee, of Boothen Old Road, Stoke-on-Trent, who recently served a sentence of three months’hard labour on a false pretence charge, of which he was innocent, yesterday received from the Home Office a free pardon and £lOO compensation. Mr. Lee was sentenced by Tunstall magistrates last August, it being alleged. that, posing as a brewer’s agent, he entered into a bogus contract with a local painter to decorate a public house and drew commission. He was convicted on the evidence of the painter and the publican, who picked him out at an identification parade at Stoke Police Station. At the Police Court Mr Lee stoutly protested his innocence all through, and wrote to the Home Secretary while in prison. The Chief Constable of Stoke-on-Trent has taken the matter up since his release, with the result stated above. “I am glad to receive the pardon,” Mr. Lee said, “but I consider the amount of compensation inadequate.”