WEAK ALIBI PLEA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22131, 10 June 1935, Page 10

WEAK ALIBI PLEA

FALSE £IOOO CHEQUE PENALTY FOR UTTERING TUNNICLIFFE SENTENCED THREE YEARS IN PRISON [by telegraph—own* correspondent] NAPIER, Saturday Edward Mountford Tunnicliffe, showman and labourer, aged 43, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment with hard labour by Mr. Justice Blair in the Supreme Court to-day for uttering a forged cheque for £IOOO at tho Napier branch of the National Bank of New Zealand in February last.

When the registrar asked Tunnicliffe whether ho had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him, the prisoner replied, "I am innocent of this offence."

Mr. S. H ; Morrison, who represented Tunniclffe, asked the Judge if he wc ild consent to reserve for the Court of Appeal the question whether the Crown had proved that Tunnicliffe had knowledge of the fact that the cheque was a forgery. His Honor replied in the negative, but told Mr. Morrison that he still had the right to apply for leave to appeal. His Honor would, he said, assist in expediting the application. Mr. Morrison: Thank you, Your Honor, i wished to have the point clear that you had refused. His Honor: Yes, I definitely refuse to reserve the point.

Speaking to Tu'nnicliffe, His Honor said: "So far as you are concerned, I have to consider whether, in view of your record, I should declare you an habitual criminal. I havo examined your record very carefully. With the exception of a conviction in 1915 and another in 1913, when you must have been very young, there was a blank of some 15 years in which you were not before the Court, but since then your record has not been at all desirable. You were convicted in 1933 on three charges of theft, and again since then you were convicted for false pretences." Tunnicliffe: Can I interrupt, Your Honor? His Honor l That's all right. You have all the qualities to allow me to declare you an habitual criminal. I propose to give you a chance, but if you are ever brought up again you will be declared an habitual criminal. Your so-called alibi was about as feeble an alibi as I have ever known. I think the ends of justice will be served, and you will be a somewhat lucky man, if I impose a sentence of three years' imprisonment.