WHOLESALE FORGERIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 December 1936, Page 5

WHOLESALE FORGERIES

CABINET-MAKER IMPRISONED. [FEB PBEBS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, December 18. Thirty-seven charges in all, 23 of forgery and 14 of false pretences, had been admitted by Frederick Claude Henry Reinhardt, a cabinet-maker, who came before Mr. Justice Fair for sentence in the Supreme Court. The circumstances in which these offences had been committed were described to the court by his counsel (Mr., G. P. Finlay). Counsel said that the prisoner had been unable to overcome the difficulties in which he had found himself in making the transition from an employed working man to a business man on his own account. He went into business with a fellow employee as a manufacturer of furniture. They sold on the hirepurchase system, and at the end of 12 months it was found that the business had not been sufficiently captalised. The sum of £450 he had put into it had been wholly absorbed. His partner retired, and the prisoner assumed the whole responsibility for the business. It became necessary to draw up fresh hire-purchase agreements, and the prisoner was criminally negligent in failing to get the signatures renewed. He forged them himself. He was being hardly pressed by the finance company with which he was dealing, and in at least four cases he was driven to forge false bills of sale. His Honor said that there had been a wholesale series of forgeries extending over two and a half months, which resulted in Private Trusts, Ltd., being defrauded of approximately £3OO. The difficulties in which the prisoner had found himself were no excuse for a system of deliberate fraud. TJiis kind of offence must be met by punishment that would prevent others from thinking that they could adopt similar means without fear of adequate punishment. The least sentence he could impose would be 12 months’ imprisonment.