WOMAN IMPRISONED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21086, 21 January 1932, Page 11

WOMAN IMPRISONED.

FALSE REPRESENTATIONS. AN ORDER FOR A FUNERAL. MONEY OBTAINED FROM DOCTORS Stated by the police to have obtained money from an undertaker because of an order for burial arrangements, "Mary Augusta Hodson, aged 44, cook, was charged before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.SI., in the Police Court yesterday with being a rogue and a vagabond, having previously been convicted on June 17 for being idle and disorderly. Detective-Sergeant T. Kelly, who prosecuted, said the offence was admitted. The woman originally had been charged with being idle and disorderly, but the count had been amended. Mr. Kelly stated that the accused had first come under the notice of the police when a complaint was received from a taxi-driver that she had incurred a debt of 5s for a fare when she had been able to pay only Is. Hodson had been working at Ngatea as a cook and she came to Auckland during the Christmas holidays. The police received a further complaint from a doctor in the city that £2 5s had been obtained from him by the woman under false representations. Hodson had called on January 9, giving the name of Mrs. Lloyd, of Ngatea, and arranged to have an examination. She asked for money until she could communicate with her husband at Ngatea. The doctor acceded to the request when he found from a directory that a family of the name given by the woman lived in the Ngatea district. On January 13, Mr. Kelly proceeded, the accused called at a firm of undertakers at Ponsonby. On that occasion she gave the name of Mrs. Alach, of Ngatea, and stated that her husband had a dairy farm and milked 140 cows. She said her husband's assistant had died and she wanted to make arrangements for the burial. She gave particulars to the undertaker and then borrowed £1 on account of the order, saying that she had lost £l6 and needed the money for car fare to Ngatea. The accused had also obtained money from a doctor at Mount Albert, but he did not desire to make a complaint. She had giveD the name of Mrs. Alach and made the same statement when she visited another doctor at Mount Albert and obtained £2 5s 6d by giving an assurance that payment would be made within a week. "This woman has spent all the money drinking around the hotels," said Mr. Kelly. "She has several convictions for drunkenness, vagrancy and false pretences. She is a proper 'take-down,' and was sentenced to three months in June last." Mr. Hunt sentenced Hodson to imprisonment for six months. The accused was also charged with drunkenness, and was convicted and discharged.