Credit by Fraud

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 64, 17 March 1936, Page 9

Credit by Fraud

/ WOMAN ADMITS OFFENCE AGAINST CITY BUSINESS FIRM

Pleading guilty to a cliargo of obtaining by fraud, credit from a Palmerston North, business linn to the amount of £7 6s Bd, a married woman named Alice Hughes, a resident of Maharahara, was admitted to probation for two years by Mr J. L. Stout, S.M., in the Palmerston North Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Detectivo 0. Power informed tho Court that accused had come to Palmerton North on January 23, and purchased a. mattress, pillows and curtains, giving tho name of Mrs Lowis when asking for credit. The firm had asked for references and accused had given the name of a Napier firm and bank. Interviewed later, accused persisted with a statement that her sister had bought the goods and that she had taken them over and would pay for'them. However, she had subsequently admitted the offence and the goods had been paid for. Accused vras a married woman with eight children and her husband was a hard-working man earning £3 10s a week on a farm. Howover, it was practically impossible for accused to speak the truth and she had incurred many debts in tho past, mostly unknown to her husband.

The Magistrate said she couldn’t be allowed to go on like that and ho warned accused that a repetition of the offcnco would lead to imprisonment.