ALLEGED FALSE PRETENCES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10766, 15 May 1911, Page 4

ALLEGED FALSE PRETENCES.

This morning his Worship stated that ho had no jurisdiction to deal with the case of Donald' Owens, who on Saturday pleaded guilty to a charge of obtaining a sum of £2 16s 4d by false pretences from Alexander Copeland. The case must therefore be dealt with as an indictable one, and evidence taken. Alexander Copeland, settler at Waitaki South, said that he met accused on the road from Waitaki. Accused told him he was travelling for a paper in Waimate, and asked him to have a drink. Witness did so, and accused told him that the whiskey they were drinking was' Thorn and:- Cameron's, that the agent was Young, in Christchurch, a friend of his. Accused further said that he was taking orders for whiskey, and could get it cheap for witness. Witness thereupon gave him an order for a two-gallon jar at £2 16s 4d. Accused said that Sampson, of the Criterion Hotel,- in Oamaru, was a friend of his, and would take the money for him. Then he said that he would take it himself, and he did so, giving witness a written receipt. Witness parted with his money because he believed that accused was what he represented himself to be. He had not since received his whiskey nor heard from Young and Co. Cross-exaniinecl by accused, witness said that in his house accused had two or three drinks, but he was not drunk, as he could walk. It was not true that witness said he had a friend representing Young and Co., wine and spirits merchants, of Wellington. There was no order made out and an envelope addressed to W. F. Young, Jervois Quay, Wellington, so far as witness knew. Accused wrote out something which witness signed : he supposed that was the order. Arthur Hooper, employed by copeland, also gave evidence. Accused at first did not wish to take the money, but Copeland insisted on ms taking 1 At this stage hearing of the charge was adjourned to Monday, May U-