COX'S CAPERS CURTAILED.

NZ Truth, Issue 252, 23 April 1910, Page 7

COX'S CAPERS CURTAILED.

Francis James Cox came to TCew Zea^ land about fo r years ago, and, after a long residence m Christchurch, he nrigratert to Dunedin, where be was a long way along, the path of moneymaitirig before the police dropped on fmn. Francis carve before ■ -,the Police Court one day recently, and said he was prepaid to piea<! guilty to having passed a valueless eheqve on Roderick Macken ac,- Heensee of the Excelsior Hotel, thereby ma! ing a sovereign. But the Chief Dcte^ti c oWn't want to go on j with tli&iavc, and he got a remand. He said re wanted to look into the history of Francis. Francis didn't like this and wanted to be uealt with with quickness and despatch. JJe wasn't, and when he came up again, on April 14 . he had to answer three further charges— stealing an overcoat valued at £2, the property of Peter Marshall ; passing a valueless cheque on James Deaver and getting &1 ; and passing shoddy paper- on James Carruthers, "whereby he made £7'ls'7d. The Chief Detective said Francis stole the cheques from a place where he went for tbe ostensible purpose of ringing up the saleyards. . ,- ■..,.■ Mr P. Thomson appeared for Cox and said he was prepared to plead goilty to all the charges, but the Chief Detective objected again, and was given an adjournment to enable him to: hear from Wel'injrton as to what was known about Francis. When Cox again appeared before the Magistrate, he elected to be dealt with summarily on all the charges. • ■ ! ' The Chief Detective explained that the overcoat was stolen from the Wharf , Hotel, where Cox liad stayed for a; lew days. Regarding the valueless cheques, he said, it was generally hard to get blank cheques, but m this case some cuniin.3 had been shown. ; Cox bad a- very bad record, .but Solicitor Thomson put forth the pica '•-thst the present offences had been committed while accused was drunk. .. He (Mr Thomson) reckoned that the gullibility of shopkeepers m receiving snide cheqaes was a direct incentive to crime. Cox, he said, was willing to refund the money. y Magistrate Bartholomew, after ; characterising Cox as a . 'professional criminal, sentenced him on tbe various, charges to a total of one year and five months' im-' piisonineut. The money found on Mm (£ll 12s sd) was ordered to be distrib'utcd among -his victims, loss his legal exr penses. ' . ' ;