DUNEDIN SESSIONS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 7 November 1919, Page 5

DUNEDIN SESSIONS.

DUNEDIN, Nov. 6,. At the Supreme Court William Gerald Manning was convicted on a charge of falsifying th c accounts as a servant of John Watson, of Port Chalmers. The jury made a strong recommendation to mercy on account of the lax manner in which the employer allowed the business to be conducted-. Manning subsequently pleaded guilty to' a charge ~.f receiving £18 10s 6d in various sums and fraudently omitting to account for and pay these sums to AVatson. The accused wa.i remanded' for sentence.

CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 5. John Lynch, a stonemason, was cnarged with having forged a totalisator ticket at the Metropolitan trotting meeting, entitling the holder to a double figure dividend on Dillon Direct; also with having attempted to induce a totalisator clerk_ to act on it as if it were genuine, and in the alternative with having used the ticket knowing it to be a false document.

Evidence for the Crown showed that the ticket was a clever forgery. It was suspected by the pay-out clerk, who closed the window in order to examine it. The. accused went away, but later returned to the totalisator house and demanded payment. j The accused, giving evidence on his \ own behalf, said he chummed up with j a soldier on the course, and they i betted together all the afternoon. The ticket was given him by his friend to collect, and he had no" idea that it was not genuine. His Honor, summing up, said it must .be remembered there were some very smart people to be found on racecourses, and accused might have been made 'a cat's-paw. The jury, after a brief retirement, returned a verdict of not guilty, and the prisoner was discharged.