FORGED TESTIMONIALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21359, 7 December 1932, Page 14

FORGED TESTIMONIALS

UNEMPLOYED ENGINEER COMMITTED FOR SENTENCE [BY TELKGEAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] CIIPJSTCIIUKCH. Tuesday Tl;c story o: how James Garfield Heath obtained the position of engineer and clerk to the Kaikoura County Council by means of forged testimonials, was related in the Police Court this morning, when he pleaded guilty to three charges of forgery, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Heath was described as an electrical engineer, aged 33, of Palmerston North. He did not retafri his position long, resigning after a day or two. The charges against Heath were that he forged documents in June, 1932, purporting to he a certified copy of a testimonial from the Murray Shire Council, New South Wales; that be forged the name of J. C. Parkes, J.P., to a document purporting to ho a copy of a testimonial issued by the president of the Motueka branch of the "Returned Soldiers' Association, and that he forged the name of J. C. Parkes to a document purporting to be a copy of a testimonial issued by the town clerk of Motueka Borough Council.

The police said ITealh applied for the position when it was advertised, and put in the testimonials with his application. As the result of certain information, persons alleged to have given the testimonials were interviewed. No such person as "J. C. Parkes, J.P.," existed. Accused, in a statement, said he had been educated at the Otajjo Boys' High School and Olago University, and was never with the Murray Shire Council. Parts of the other testimonials were true, but in one. case he had made the words "electrical engineer" read as "engineer." lie knew he was doing wrong, but he had been out of work for some time.