THE KAIRE CASE.

Northern Advocate, 30 July 1924, Page 5

THE KAIRE CASE.

SWINDLE FACILITATED

JUDGE'S STINGING COMMENT

AUCKLAND, This Day,

In the course of his charge to the Grand Jury yesterday Mr Justice Stringer commented critically upon the misguided simplicity of shopkeepers in accepting cheques unquestioned

A Maori, William Kaire, was charged with breaking and entering, also with arson. There was no doubt, said the Judge, that the place had been burned down, and that it had been broken into and a cheque book stolen. That the Maori possessed himself of the cheque book was clear beyond all doubt, because accused had forged some of the cheques, and had pleaded guilty to that charge.

j "Wttiat struck me most in looking through this case is the remarkable facility which tradespeople afford to the passing of cheques," observed Mr Justice Stringer. "Here, on Saturday, July 5, this man forges the name of two or three people in Whangarei, and on that same Saturday afternoon he presents six cheques after the banks are closed. He collects a total of over £250 from different tradespeople in the little town of Whangarei. The remarkable part about it is that at only two places did he purchase goods. At the other business places he simply cashed the cheques. It shows extraordinary laxity, to my mind. It is almost (smiling) a matter for satisfaction that those people lost their money."