CHEQUES STOLEN.

Matamata Record, Volume XI, Issue 962, 11 October 1928, Page 5

CHEQUES STOLEN.

YOUNG MAN’S OFFENCE. Heavy Fine Imposed. “ These charges are serious and have been reduced from forging and uttering to common theft to save the country the expense of a trial in the Supreme Court,” said Constable Heeps when a young man, James Alexander Carman, of Walton, was charged before Messrs. C. M. Gummer and W. T. Osborne in the Morrinsville Court on Friday. The constable said accused had no dependants. He arrived in Walton from Hamilton in February and was employed by George Fromm. After two or three months he left to work for Percy Sowerby, Kereone. During this latter period Sowerby wrote out a cheque for thirty shillings and signed it, but, finding he did not require it, he put it aside. When he came to look for the cheque later he found it missing, also that a blank form had been torn from his cheque book. Subsequent investigations disclosed that the cheque had been paid into the Verner tearooms, also that a cheque for £4 10s signed “G. Fromm ” had been cashed at Steele’s, fruiterer, Morrinsville. Fromm had no account*at the National Bank and

the cheque was not honoured when presented. Carman said he did not know what had become of the money. He had none left. The accused had also stayed for a week at the Nottingham Castle Hotel and had not , paid his bill, which amounted to £4 , Bs. His luggage was being held at , the hotel. The offences were serious . and the accused should be dealt with severely, said the constable. Carman, who pleaded guilty, said i be had nothing to say. ( A fine of ten pounds was imposed, in default two months’ imprisonment at Mount Eden, on each ‘ charge, the terms to he cumulative. Carman pleaded not guilty to charges of offensive behaviour and drunkenness in a railway carriage on January 15 and was remanded to Hamilton, where he was fined ten shillings and costs.