ALLEGED FORGERY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 8 May 1925, Page 9

ALLEGED FORGERY.

A LENGTHY CASE.

JURY DISAGREES

(BY TELEGRAPH. PRESS ASSOCIATION.) TIMaKU, May 8.

James Murray, an ox-postal official, was charged at the Supreme Court before Judge Adams, with having forged the signature of J. R. MacDonald, a farm labourer at Albury, to a Post Office Savings Bank withdrawal form, by which the accused withdrew £2OO from MacDonald’s account and converted it to his own use. The accused put forward an elaborate defence, and said that MacDonald had himself signed the withdrawal form and had lent him £2OO. Having failed to get the money repaid by the accused, MacDonald was now charging him with having forged his signature so- that he could recover it from the Postal Department. There was no entry in MacDonald’s pass book showing a withdrawal of the money, and the accused accounted for this by saying MacDonald had not his pass book with him when he signed the withdrawal form.

MacDonald emphatically denied the accused’s statements, and said that lie had never given authority to- anyone to withdraw his money. Considerable evidence was heard, the case lasting two full days. The jury, after four hours’ retirement. disagreed, and a new trial was ordered for the August sessions. The court rose at 2 a.m.