CREDIT BY FRAUD

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20209, 30 March 1940, Page 2

CREDIT BY FRAUD

t BOGUS LIEUTENANT . MAGNETIC MINE TALE DECEPTION AT HOTEL A charge of obtaining board and lodging to the value of £l9 19s from L. G. ' Lewis, of Christchurch, by falsely representing that he was a lieutenant in His Majesty’s naval forces was preferred against a young man, Leslie James McGregor, in the Dunedin Police Court on Wednesday. McGregor was also charged with unlawfully wearing the uniform and badges of a naval lieutenant. He pleaded guilty to the first charge and not guilty to the second. Detective-Sergeant Hall said that the uniform was worn in Christchurch and if accused pleaded not guilty to the second charge the evidence would have to he taken in Christchurch. In connection with that count, Mr. E. J. Anderson, who represented the accused, said that McGregor was the fyi-st mate in a Sea Scout troop and the uniform which he had worn in Christchurch was one attached to that position and not that of a commissioned officer of the navy. Combating Magnetic Mines

Sergeant Hall pointed out that it was also an offence to wear a Scout uniform to which accused was not entitled. Accused went to Christchurch abotit Christmas time and booked in at an hotel for bed and breakfast, representing that he was a lieutenant in the navy and that he had come out from England to take charge of a converted trawler to combat the magnetic mine menace. He was then wearing a triform which he purported to be that dlf a naval lieutenant. While he was at the hotel he put through a bogus telephone call to the proprietor alleging that it came from the Navy Department and said. ,that the department would, be responsible for his board. After he had been there for nearly six weeks he told the proprietor to send the account to the Navy Department, but' when Lewis did so the department replied that it had no knowledge of 'any Lieutenant McGregor and then forwarded particulars on to the police. Detective Berry interviewed accused on March 21 and McGregor frankly admitted everything. Letter to Girl When McGregor left the hotel, Sergeant Hall said, he wrote a letter purporting to come from a third person to a young girl sand represented that Lieutenant-Commander McGregor had met with an accident in a converted trawler while operating in the China Sea. that he had been seriously injured and was then, in hospital in Darwin, but would be returning to New Zealand shortly. The magistrate, Mr. J. R. Bartholomew, said that the accused was a young man of otherwise good character. He would take into account that the offence was the result of a foolish act,which brought him by progressive steps to his present position. He would be admitted to probation for 12 months \on condition that he made restitution of £l9 19s within 14 days. On the magistrate’s suggestion the second charge was withdrawn.