Alleged Forging Of Tote Tickets

Northern Advocate, 7 May 1948, Page 9

Alleged Forging Of Tote Tickets

AUCKLAND. Fri. (Sp.)—No evidence for the defence was called in the Supreme Court case in which three men face 113 charges of forgery, uttering, theft and conspiracy to defraud, relating to offences with totalisator tickets between November, 1947, anci March, 1948. The accused are:

Neville Wolfe, 30, clerk, 37 charges of forgery. 85 of uttering, 20 of theft and 21 of conspiracy.

John Proctor Savage, 27. labourer, 34 of forgery, 34 of uttering, 19 of theft and 21 of conspiracy.

Douglas Gordon, 45, machine operator, six of forgery, six of uttering, four of theft and five of conspiracy. WOLFE’S STATEMENT Senior-Detective Aplin said Wolfe had made a statement in which he said he and Savage had talked about altering totalisator tickets. Wolfe said he decided (o make stamps out of linoleum. He had a set of valueless tickets numbered 1 to 24 from which he copied the numbers for the stamps. When be was altering the tickets at Ellerslie he operated only on £5 tickets. Savage cashed them and they divided the proceeds. They picked a horse, bought a ticket on it and if it did not win he altered (he ticket and punched on it the number of the winning horse. He performed this in the men’s lavatory. Gordon in his statement denied that he knew Wolfe and Savage were involved in forgery and uttering of totalisator tickets. COUNSEL’S ADDRESSES On behalf of Savage, Mr Robinson said accused appeared’ on 108 charges relating to 20 transactions involving 34 £5 tickets. Counsel submitted that most of the charges were inferential, as there was no evidence that Savage was on the racecourse before March 27.

Exchanging money on the course was a regular practice and the fact that accused had marked £5 notes in his possession did not prove his guilt. No forged tickets were found on Gordon and no material with whiclx to forge them. Gordon did not know the tickets he had cashed were forgeries. Mr Moody, for Wolfe, said he thought other people beside Wolfe were concerned in the allleged frauds. There was not enough evidence in the conspiracy charges to convict Wolfe alone and counsel invited the jury to make a recommendation in his case. Tlxe Chief Justice (Sir Humphrey O'Leary) summed-up this .morning.