CHARGE OF FRAUD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26200, 10 July 1946, Page 3

CHARGE OF FRAUD

SALE OF HIRE-PURCHASE CHATTELS Williarri Theodore Jackson, a labourer (Mr H. J. S. Grater), pleaded guilty in the Oamaru Magistrate’s Court yesterday before Mr H. W. Bundle S.M., to a charge of fraud.

Senior Sergeant Wilson said the charge arose from the sale of pieces of furniture bv Jackson to a person in Balclutha, the furniture being the property of the State Advances Corporation of New Zealand, while Jackson was under a hire-purchase agreement with the corporation, and such sale was a breach of a clause, in the agreement. Jackson was staying at Balclutha, and stored the furniture at the house where he was staying. He offered for sale portion of the furniture to the owner of the house and then, accompanied by his wife, took the furniture to Dunedin where it was again stored. In Dunedin he sold a further piece of the furniture. but the buyer refused to take more when he was again approached by Jackson. The list of the furniture was incomplete when the corporation checked it in the store. When approached by the police, Jackson said he was worried at the time, and had taken to drinking because his wife had left him.

Mr Grater said this was one of many cases which would come before the court If the corporation continued to adopt l its present conditions, as they would have furniture on unregistered hire-purchase agreements which left a wide opening for transactions of this nature. Jackson was a returned soldier who returned to New Zealand in September, 1945, to find his domestic life unhappy. He was grade I in the medical category when he left for overseas and 3P on his return. He was not in receipt of a military pension. His present employer said he was a hard worker.

“ The action,” said Mr Grater, “ was not one of criminal intent, but had been follishly done when he was depressed.” He asked for the clemency of the court, and had offered to make restitution at the rate of 10s per week. The magistrate said the defendant was placed in a difficult position with the hire-purchase agreement, but must have understood that he could not sell. Jackson was convicted and placed on probation’ for a period of six months, restitution to, be made at the direction of the probation officer Traffic Offences The Transport Department proceeded against the following for exceeding the speed limit of 49 miles per hour:—Gertrude Laurentin Richards (fined 28s, costs 12s); Norman Barlow (755, costs 10s); Norman Lynn (20s, costs 10s); Stewart Charles Watson (50s, costs 10s); Laurence Richard Bourke (50s, costs 10s); Robert Arthur Dunbar (30s, costs 10s); Earle William Smither (20s, costs 10s); Frederick John Horn (40s, costs- 10s). For riding a motor cycle with defective lighting, Cecil John Wright was fined 10s (costs 10s); for operating an unlicensed goods service, Sydney David Candy (Mr H. J. Main) was fined 9s (costs 11s) and R. McMurtrie was fined 5s (costs 12s). Traffic Inspector L. E. Simmons stated that parking on bus stops in the town area was becoming prevalent, and he issued a warning to motorists that those areas were set aside for buses only. A defended case brought by the department against Iris Main for exceeding 40 miles per hour (Mr H. J. S. Grater) wai dismissed.