WOMAN’S FRAUD

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 March 1939, Page 3

WOMAN’S FRAUD

FORGED "TOTE” TICKET. LONDON, anuary 13. A woman was sentenced at Middlesex Sessions yesterday to three months’ imprisonment for obtaining £B3/(1 by means of a forged totalisator ticket, while a. man accused of forging the ticket was acquitted. Mrs Fanny Victoria Roberts, 37. of Gililatt-i'oad, Slough, Bucks, pleaded guilt.), ami Walter Pickering, 60, a scrap metal dealer, of Stoke-gardens, Slcugh, pleaded not guilty to the forgery and to obtaining £B/3/6. Mr Maurice Healy. K.C., prosecuting, said that in a totalisator pool at Northolt Park races on October 24 on the first two horses in a race letters were used to represent the horses’ names, and the winning combination was "V.L”

Among the 35 winning tickets handed' in, it was found that one which had been ”V.J.” had had the tail of the "J” rubbed off. Mrs Roberts, who gave evidence against. Pickering, alleged that he scratched the ticket and gave it. to her to collect the money. She later gave Pickering and his son 10/- each. Air .1. F. East.wood, K.C., for Pickering: Were you taken to hospital recently by the police’.’—They tell me so. When Mr Eastwood asked. “Were you treated in hospital for gas poisoning?" Mrs Roberts collapsed in a faint. Court officials went to her aid.

After a consultation between counsel. it was agreed that Mrs Roberts should be asked no more questions. She was assisted from the Court. Pickering, in evidence, denied that he altered one ticket, and said that he was unaware that Mrs Roberts had done so. in the fading light, it looked genuine. After Pickering had been acquitted on both charges, Mr E. .1. P. Cusscu, on behalf of Mrs Roberts, said she had. been taken to the racecourse by Pickering. Since this incident she bad made two atempts to commit suicide. He thought that binding over night; might be: an adequate sentence. Sir Reginald Coventry. K.C.. the deputy chairman, remarked’ that to bind people over when they had committed a palpable fraud wett'd lie. a farce. Mrs Roberts must go to prisC’J for three months.