YOUNG MAN'S VANITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21254, 6 August 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

YOUNG MAN'S VANITY

" SWOLLEN HEAD " AND CRIME LIVING IN GRAND STYLE •• ORGY OF FORGERY H To a suggestion by the prosecution that tho man in the clock at the Old Bailey had engaged m an " orgy of forgery," defending counsel submitted that the explanation was tragic vanity and a swollen head." A plea of guilty was entered by Wyndham Richards, aged 26, clerk, to charges of forging and uttering cheques to the value of £2600. Counsel for the prosecution stated that Richards' total defalcations amounted to neatly C3OOO lie got the money by forgery and falsification of accounts. His banking account seemed to show that ho was intoxicated with a desire to live verj much beyond his means and position and that was why he embarked upon this orgy of forgery. Tho Recorder, Sir Ernest Wild, nskod how Richards used the money. A detective replied that he had been mixing with young men far above his station in life. Ho bought a motor-car for £750 and also purchased u house. Sir Ernest: lie has been living in tremendous style? —Officer: Yes; 1 imagitio ho has Counsel for tho defence remarked: " 1 am instructed that he spent over £3OOO of the money in return for hospitaliv offered him by friends in a station of life above his own." The Recorder, examining some of the cheques, remarked that the signatures were very clever forgeries.

Counsel explained that Richards met a young lady who lived in the West LncJ and became engaged to her. They should have been married shortly. The Recorder asked how Richards could have run through £BOOO in 18 months and counsel again mentioned the motor-car atid a house in Kent which prisoner bought and furnished. In passing sentence of three years' penal servitude the Recorder remarked that the tragedy of the case was that Richards had not only wrecked his own life, but brought shame and disgrace on respectable parents. He would give him the minimum sentence he was permitted to do for an offence of such magnitude, skill and wickedness.