FALSE PRETENCES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22318, 1 May 1947, Page 4

FALSE PRETENCES

YOUNG MAN CHARGED OVER £9O OBTAINED Pleading guilty to 17 charges of false pretences and one charge of failing .to report to a probation officer while being an offender on probation, Arthur Blair O’Donahoo, aged 25. a transport driver, was sentenced to 238 days’ imprisonment by Mr. E L. Walton. S.M., in the Gisborne Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The charges mainly related .to the cashing of false cheques of varying values and at several towns in the North Island during the past two months. As well as false cheques, O'Donahoo used other methods to obtain money, by representing that bank notes of various denominations were in envelopes he gave to people, and that his luggage had been stolen, and he had to have money to trace it. The prosecution was conducted by Detective-Sergeant R. H. Waterson, who slated that O'Donahoo during March had travelled from Auckland to Masterton cashing false cheques. His method had been to obtain a blank cheque form from hotel-keepers or shopkeepers, fill it in and cash it at some other hotel or shop. The accused was of good appearance and of a plausible nature, and had obtained approximately £9O by false pretences. There was practically nothing left of this amount, and as far as was known there was no hope of getting any of the money back. O'Donahoo had one previous conviction for theft and in January, 1948, had been sentenced to 18 months’ probation for ,false pretences. During the past nine months he had not worked. Leaving New Zealand with the first Echelon as a driver, O’Donahoo had served overseas for five years. On the charge of failing to report to the probation officer, the magistrate convicted and discharged O'Donahoo, but on eacli of the other 17 charges he was convicted and sentenced to 14 days’ imprisonment on each charge, the sentences to be cumulative.