INCREASE OF FORGERY.

New Zealander, Volume XXIV, Issue 2614, 24 March 1866, Page 3

INCREASE OF FORGERY.

Five charges of forgery were brought under the notice of the police on Wednesday— three against a respectably attired young man, named William Henry Hawkins, alias Frederick Marshall, and two against a man named Duval. The cheques were for trilling amounts, with the exception of one for £'2o, on the bank of New Zealand, tendered to Mr. Robert Hale, baker, Parnell, in professed payment for a horse and harness sold to the prisoner. It appears the prisoner went to Mr. Hale’s shop in Parnell, on Friday evening, and agreed to purchase a horse and harness which he had advertised for sale, tendering in payment a cheque for £ - 2f), which left a balance of £2 unpaid. Delivery was not to be given until the balance was paid. A cheque for the balance was signed on Saturday ; but possession was still retained by Mr Hales, who suspected the genuineness of tbe paper. On the cheques being presented for payment, they were endorsed “no funds.” The same person, it appears, hired a horse and trap from Mr. Crowther’s stables, Parnell, for an hour or two on Monday; but failed afterwards to put in an appearance. He next turned up at Messrs. Quick and Go’s stables, in Victoria street, on Tuesday night, where lie put the horse and trap up fur tbe night. On Wednesday morning, he tendered a cheque for £l to the ostler, in payment of 12s. for stabling. The ostler received the cheque, and gave Bs. change ; but when the cheque was presented at the bank by Mr. Anderson, it was returned endorsed “no funds.” Mr. Anderson at once set out in search of the delinquent, and found him comfortably ensconced in the bar-parlour of the Criterion Hotel, Otahuhu, whore he was about to make himself quite at home. He was brought into town by Mr. Anderson, and during the afternoon a warrant was taken out against him by Mr. Hales for obtaining goods under false pretences. A similar charge was preferred against him by Mr. Horne, draper, at whose shop he bad tendered a cheque on the Bank of New South Wales, foi £•‘s 10. Cd., in payment for clothing, which was returned, endorsed “no funds.” This cheque bore the signature of William H. Hawkins, which is, wo arc told, prisoner’s real name. He came to this colony only a short time since in the ‘Alice Cameron,’ from Sydney. Two other charges of forgery were brought under the notice of the police, against a person named Duval, who had passed cheques, subsequently returned endorsed “ no effects,” for £4 and £1 respectively, upon a storekeeper named Hill.