FALSE PRETENCES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23058, 8 December 1936, Page 2

FALSE PRETENCES

SERIES OF OFFENCES ADMITTED HOUSEHOLDERS VICTIMISED A series of frauds against householders in Dunedin was disclosed in the City Police Court yesterday morning when William Joseph Shallish. a young man, 26 years of age, pleaded guilty to 13 charges of obtaining money by falsely representing that he was taking orders for coal companies. The charges alleged that the amounts obtained by the accused, while falsely representing that he was taking orders for the Graham Coal Company, were £ 1 2s 6d from Ellen Brown on August 28, 5s from Jessie Thomson on September 24, £1 from Margaret Stewart Anderson on October 5, and 10s from Frederick Robert Hugh Sutherland on October 6. Subsequently it. was alleged the accused represented that he was an agent of the Waikawa Coal Company, the amounts so obtained being 10s from •Agnes Anne Beveridge and 10s from David John Mason on October 12, 10s from Dora May Kinmont on October 20, 10s from Flora Campbell on November 2,10 s from May Vaughan on November 11, 10s from Kathleen \ Moodie, 10s from Susan Christina Justin, 5s from Christina Elizabeth Malcolm Clayton, and 10s from Agnes Lilian White on November 13.

Chief Detective Young said that in August last the accused apparently devised the scheme of calling on people at their private houses, representing that he was the agent of a reputable coal company, and stating that by cash payments the customers »would receive a considerable discount. He succeeded in obtaining a certain amount of money, but complaints were received by the police, the accused eventually being identified- by one of the complainants in the street and being handed over to Constable Tither. An identification parade was held at the police station, and the accused was identified by seven other complainants. One of the worst features of the case was that in several cases the accused obtained money from widows and others who could ill afford to lose it. „ The amounts secured by the accused totalled £7 2s 6d. He was a single man, and was before the court in 1930, when he was admitted to probation on a charge of theft. Mr E. J. Anderson said that the accused was 26 years of age and one of a family of nine. He completed his time as an electrician in 1929 or 1930, but on account of the depression he had not been able to obtain steady employment, and had been largely on relief work during the past six years. He had latterly been endeavouring to assist his father, who was a bootmaker in the suburbs, to obtain orders, and it appeared that it was while he was on this class of work that the idea of seeming money entered his mind. He was obviously a young man who required some form of control over him. Six years" ago he had been before the court on a charge of theft, and had been admitted to probation for a period of two years. His conduct while on probation had been satisfactory, and Mr Anderson suggested that if he were given a final chance, and placed on probation under strict terms, he would make good.

The magistrate (Mr H. W. Bundle, S.M.) said that this was a particularly despicable form of theft. The accused would be remanded in custody until Friday, to enable the probation officer to submit a report.