“GET RICH QUICK”

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11433, 1 February 1923, Page 5

“GET RICH QUICK”

AND THE CONSEQUENCES 'i JIREE YOUNG MEN BEFORE THE COURT. CHEQUES FOR OVER £II,OOO. The story of what was alleged to be an attempt by three young men to operate a “Get Rich. Quick Wallingford” scheme w.as unfolded in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. The accused were Leonard Walter Makin. William Holland Makin, and Perry Dowling Hawkins, and the eighteen change against them were of drawing false cheques on the Bank of New Zealand. The amounts of the cheques averaged between £6OO and £7OO, and the total of the amounts named in the charges was £11,739 9s. The principal witness in the case was Detective Nuttall, who produced in evidence statements whioh he said the accused had made and signed.

“X WAS ONLY JOKING.” In the course of his evidence, Detective Nuttall produced a statement which he said W. H. Makin had made. In it occurred the following:—“My brother, Bunny, and Percy Hawkins were staying with me at Feilding. During the first day or two of their stay I received; a cheque from the Lands Department. One evening we were discussing some case in the paper of a ‘Get Rich Quick Wallingford’ scheme, and I had the department’s cheques in my hand, and I think I made some remark to the effect that if a man had a few of these cheques he could easily work a scheme. At that time I was only joking, of course. A few days later Percy said he was going to Wellington to get some cheques. He returned some days later and said he had been up to the department several mornings between 6.30 and 7.30 consecutively, and had searched for the cheques without avail, but had come to the conclusion they were in a certain cupboard. Several days passed, during which Bunny and Percy were continually together, and they at length decided to .go to Wellington together. On their return they told me they had taken the lock off the cupboard and taken a whole book of cheques. I have forgotten to mention Percy brought back with him on the first occasion a hook with a cancelled cheque. - . . We decided to operate accounts at various hanks to enable the cheques to he paid in. Percy allotted himself from Napier down, myself New Plymouth, and Percy Palmerston i\orth and the Wairarapa. . . . Bunny went to Wellington, and one morning obtained a book of forms similar to tbo one I had received from the department. I typed the forms out, and Bunny took them to Wellington and posted them to the various hanks.

GETTING “FED UP” OF THE SCHEME. All this time I was getting more and more fed up with the whole scheme. On the Thursday morning before. Christmas I went into the Bank of Australasia and inquired if a cheque for T. Wells had arrived. The clerk informed me “yes” and requested me to see the manager. While waiting to see the manager I definitely decided I would finish with the scheme. After signing the cheque in the Bank of Australasia I left the manager’s room, and proceeded to leave the hank, and was arrested on the 6teps of the bank. Had I not decided to finish with the scheme then and there I should have endeavoured to operate the cheque before leaving the bank. STORY OF A CONVERSATION. The detective also produced a statement attributed to Hawkins. “I am a single man,” ran Hawkins’s statement, “and reside at Moturata, Feilding. I am 28 years of age. Some time last October—l think it would be about the end of October —I visited William Holland Makin at his farm at Moturata. His brother Leonard was there at the time. After I had been staying at his house a few days conversation cropped up between the three of us concerning Government cheques. At the time of this conversation William Holland Makin had a <4ieque from the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Department. HOW THEY GOT THE CHEQUE BOOK. “The three of us discussed a scheme, and we thought that if we could get the blank cheques from the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Department and fill them in ourselves and forge Beeson’s signature it would be possible io operate them. About the beginning of November, 1922, I came to Wellington for the purpose of trying to get some of the blank cheques.” \Vitneas went on to describe how he and Bunny (L. W. Makin) went to the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement office early one morning, unscrewed the staple from a locked cupboard, and took a cheque book. They went to the Bank of New Zealand at Palmerston North, and presented a cheque for about £6O. Bill Makin asked if he could pay a cheque into his account at the Post Office, and the accountant said he could. This was done to see if the banks would pay cash on the cheques. THE WORK MAPPED OUT. To make the scheme workable they came to the conclusion that they would have to open accounts at the different hanks. Hawkins made out the twentythree cheques on vtirious banks m Taranaki, Wanganui, Marton,' Palmerston North, Masterton, Carterton, and five towns in Hawke’s Bay. He made out the body of the cheques and understood the other two were going to sign them, and it was arranged that he should work the towns in Hawke’s Bay, that Bill should work from Marton to New Plymouth, and “Bunny” the Wairarapa. DESTROYED BY FERE AND WATER. He left Feilding on his motor hike, and when about four mile® out dismounted and burnt the cheques. Everything in connection with the cheques that were not used he took with him on the hike. The cheques he burnt were those which he was to operate in Hawke’s Bay. After burning the cheques he went Wanganui, and about 11 o’clock one night he took the remaining cheques and stationery in a sugar hag with a stone in it and threw them into the river. He did not go to Hawke’s Bay, and made no arrangements re opening accounts there. Had the scheme been successful it was not intended to withdraw the full amounts of the cheques deposited at the various hanks. NO OTHERS IMPLICATED. L. W. Makin was also credited by Detective Nuttall with having made a statement to the effect that he had read Hawkins’s statement, and that everything in it was true. Ho added that there were no other persons implicated in the forgeries, except hia brother and Hawkins. Detective Nuttall added that the three accused had initialled sixteen of the gorged ckajpieSj and the remaining tup - ■ f ;v

had not come to hand. They had admitted that the whole of the cheques were forgeries. OTHER EVIDENCE. G. J. Beeson, accountant in the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Department, gave evidence of the receipt from the Government Paymaster of certain cheque forms which he placed in a cupboard, the key of which he held. David Owen •L. Howden, an accountant in the Bank of New Zealand, Marton, deposed that on December 11th a man giving the name of Arthur Leonard Wnght called at the bank, and opened an account in that name fly paying in £25. On December 20th the bank received a cheque for £613 in favour of A. L. Wright. L. W. Makin was the man who represented himself as Wright. Formal evidence was given by other hank officials. A PLEA OF GUILTY. The accused all pleaded guilty, and were committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Bail (£500) was allowed Hawkins and W. H. Makin. L. W. Makin did not apply for kail.