WOMEN'S NAMES FORGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21325, 28 October 1932, Page 14

WOMEN'S NAMES FORGED

BELIEF MONEY RECEIPTS ACCUSED DENIES CHARGES FOUND GUILTY BY JURY u [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] CHRISTCHURCH, Thursday Pleading not guilty to seven charges of forgery, and seven of uttering, Herbert Edwin Barnsley, 52, an accountant and relief worker, late secretary and treasurer to the Labour Defence League, stood his trial in the Supreme Court before Mr. Justice Ostler and a jury. It was alleged that Barnsley had accepted money from the Mayor S relief fund for distribution to dependants, of men imprisoned as a result of the disturbances in May, and had forged the signatures of seven women without them their money, 3s in each case, and that he returned the forged receipts to the City Council, rendering them as genuine. « The Crown Prosecutor said the Labour Defence League had been formed to help imprisoned men and their dependants. Barnsley was appointed secretary and treasurer. The league had a benevolent section, of which a man named White was secretary. It had been decided by the Mayor's relief fund authorities to grant (lie dependants of the imprisoned men. 3s a.week each. The sum of 36s was paid by the council's cashier to White, who paid three women. Then, as he had to go to a job, he gave the receipts and 27s to Barnsley, who was to carry 'on with the distribution. On July 27 the accused returned 12 receipts, which were accepted as genuine, and he was given another 36s for distribution, continued the Crown Prosecutor. The trouble then arose that the women complained they had not received the money. When charged by the women with failing to give them the money, Barnsley maintained that he had been busy and had handed on the money to another man, who had brought him back the receipts. "He still maintains that," said the Crown Prosecutor, "but he has refused to give the name of the man to whom he gave the money." Barnsley was found guilty on all counts and was remanded until to-morrow for sentence.