“ A FOOLISH ACTION."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20586, 8 December 1928, Page 11

“ A FOOLISH ACTION."

YOUNG MAN FORGES CtfEQUeX , ADMITTED TO' PBOBATION, :; i (Special to JOailt Times.) ! ■ CHBISTCHUKCH, December 7. ■' : . Robert Henry Escher came before Mr' Justice Adams : to-day for sentence for forging a cheque. \ V . -I Mr W. J. Sim said that the who was 23 years of age, came ffbm a> ; respectable'Wellington .family,! His'action- : was a very foolish one. He had expected, to redeem the cheque almost' before;it was: 1 presented. He had fallen into gambling.hab.its, and he made a wactice of attend-* in K racecourses.,!. Counsel asked for pro'':'' bation. He said that if it were granted" the prisoner should be ordered to refrain from attending" racecourses and billiard, saloons, which had caused hia -downfall.'. There was no question of drink.in" the' 1 ' , ,case.\ : / '■■_; | < '• Mr A. T>' Donnelly" (Crown said that the probation officer recommended probation., •, ' ! £■: Mr Siip asked' ibr" v suppression of the* Iname.: ( ',v , '■-...;. •Mr Donnelly laid that in the lower court the ffiagistrate had declined to sap*: press the namei ■'■■', T i The prisoner was admitted to probation* for three years. He was ordered to pay: £2 lis cost?, and make restitution of-: J3£h ,5s 9d, and to refrain from-attending iac£V courses and. other: places of amusement '' ' without the 'probation, officer's consent. He was ordered to refrain from all forms /., of/ betting and other kinds of gambling, : : to keep an account in the Post. Office Savings and to provide the proba-; tion officer with a monthly account of' his receipts and "expenditure. .■..•■".' f j '. \ : " I will Bay nothing about suppreMionof the name, but will loaive it to the discretion of the newspapers/' his Honorsaid.: '■-.:' ' ■-. ■■■.-;•■■ '.■:■ .■ ''. ;■:■;> ."■ ..v.v Subsequently Esclieiv was convicted aiid" .'-;"' discharged in the Magistrate's Court when: . he appeared, before Mr E. D. Moslev* S.M., on a charge of the theft of «IX' cheque forma ana on a further 1 charger, of false pretences. In respect' to tbo forms, Mr. Mosley said that the charges'. , were part and parcel of the Supreme* Court charge, and ; a further punishment* was unnecessary. ' ■"»'