CHARGES AGAINST CABINET-MAKER

Northern Advocate, 2 December 1936, Page 6

CHARGES AGAINST CABINET-MAKER

FORGERY AND FALSE PRETENCES ALLEGED

A cabinet-maker. Frederick Claude 'Henry Reinhardt, of Whangarei, faced | a series of 44 charges at the Whangarei [ Police Court today. There were seven I charges of failure to account, ‘ 23 of. forging, and,, 13 of false pretences. Accused was represented by Messrs D. L. Ross and G. Dent.

In regard to the seven summary charges of failure to account, accused pleaded guilty, and Mr Ross asked the presiding J’s.P., Mesrs W. Jones and G. H. Morrish. to suspend sentence until the remaining charges had been dealt with by the Supreme Court. It was hoped that accused might be granted probation there. He had .been caught in the maelstrom of high finance. and. on account of his inexperience, had resorted to matters outside the pale of the law. When accused was confronted with theenormity of his situation he became panic-stricken and left the country for Australia. He returned, however, to face the music and had given the police all the information possible.

Constable H. J. Harrington said that the total amount involved in the failure charges was £9 8/-. After a short retirement the justices said that they had decided to reserve judgment in these cases until after the Supreme Court had dealt with the other charges.

Taxi-Drivers’ Evidenee,

Aubrey Cecil Mahoney, taxi-driver, said that in .November, 1935, accused was engaged in a furniture business. Witness was also known as Tom Mahoney and accused knew witness by, this name. He had never signed any agreement in that name and had never ordered' any goods from the accused. Witness had, however, discussed the question of ordering goods but had not actually ordered any, saying that he would let accused know when he wanted the furniture. The signature on the agreement produced was not his.

Douglas Charles Copeland, a taxidriver, said he knew accused. He had never ordered any furniture from the accused nor signed any agreements. The signature on the agreement produced was not his.

In reply to Mr Dent, witness said that he had said that his wife would call in one day and have a look at a bedroom suite.

Roy Keith Smith, engineer, of Whangarei, said he knew the accused. He had never ordered any furniture from Reinhardt, though witness' wife had inquired about a carpet. He had never signed an agreement with the accused. Athol Leonard Reinhardt, a labourer, of Whangarei, gave evidence that accused was his brother, and that he had ordered certain articles of furniture from him. He signed a hire-pur-chase agreement. This was on December 20, 1935. The agreement included a bedroom and dining ! room suite, but he only received the bedroom suite. Later ’ this was returned, as he was unable to keep up the payments. A deposit of £5 was paid. Hazel Fiavell, single, of Whangarei, said she knew accused by sight. Some time before Christmas, 1935, she called at Reinhardt’s shop to order some furniture for her mother. A dining-room suite was ordered.

Found Shop Closed. An agreement was signed on the day the order was given. A deposit of 2/9 was paid, but no further payments were made. Reinhardt said he was busy when the order was given and after about two months witness called back to see if the furniture was ready and found the shop closed. The furniture had not been received.

Raymond James Lynch, salesman, o£ Whangarei, said that in February he saw Reinhardt and discussed buying some furniture. An agreement was made later that when witness bought any furniture he would buy it from Reinhardt. No articles were enumerated and those stipulated on the agreement produced had not been ordered. A blank was left on the agreement when he signed. The agreement was guarantee of good faith that he would buy from Reinhardt when required. Evidence was given by Frances Maude Coulter, secretary of Private Trusts, Ltd., Auckland, that part of the firm s business consisted of discounting hire-purchase agreements to traders, the system being that when a customer completed a hire-purchase agreement, the agreement was then forwarded to the firm, a discount payment in cash being made to the trader, and the trader assigned his interest in the sale before the cash payment was made. On some instances the customer paid direct to the firm, when the customer was informed that the firm had taken over the agreement, and, in other instances, the trader collected the instalments and forwarded them to the firm. Private Trusts had an agreement with accused, trading as Reinhardt and Blackman, though actually Blackman had left the firm i then. '

Agreement With Reinhardt

Reinhardt agreed to assign to the ■firm, by way of security, all his interests in hire-purchas*e agreements and Private Trusts had the right to reject any they thought unsatisfactory.

Agreements were not to be signed until the goods had been delivered by Reinhardt. When an agreement was received by the firm, it was an indi ■ cation that the goods had gone to the

hirer, and if they had not the firm had no security. If the firm knew that the goods had not been delivered to the hirer at the time the agreement was presented and signed, the agreements would not have been discounted. In the accused’s case the hirers were to pay their weekly instalments to him. and he was to forward them on. While in his custody, these moneys were to be paid info a trust account, to be forwarded every week.

Deposits paid were credited by the firm to the hirer, but were retained bv right by Reinhardt. As time went on. it was found that the hirers’ receipts

were representing a greater sum than was collected.

In January. 1936. accused failed to remit his weekly instalment amounting to about £2O. No reply was re ceived to several letters, but later accused was informed that the hirers were to bo written to. In February of this year, accused paid a cheque cl £33 5/3. part ol the £4B 5/6 then due. Accused said then that he had actually received the amount from hirers represented by the cheque. This was presented at the bank and returned. As a result of inquiries the matter was handed over to the police.

(Proceeding.)