AUCTIONEER CHARGED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26769, 12 May 1948, Page 8

AUCTIONEER CHARGED

ALLEGATION OF FORGERY pA. CHRISTCHURCH, May. 11. The case for the Crown was completed this evening on charges against Arthur Cyril Vincent, aged 50, an auctioneer, of the theft of £5 from the Ashburton County Racing Club on September 13, and t«he forgery of five totalisator tickets. The charges are being heard in the Supreme Court before Mr Justice Fleming and a iurv. Evidence for the defence will be called to-morrow. Mr R. A. Young is appearing for the accused* and Mr A. W. Brown for the Crown. " Both charges arise out of certain events which are alleged to have occurred at the Ashburton County Racing Club’s meeting at Ashburton on September 13,” said Mr Brown, outlining the Crown case. “ The accused is charged with taking five totalisator tickets which were not to be used that day, putting a stamp on them, selling them to the pocketing the money. We are concerned with only two races, the second ana the fifth. On Race 2, two unofficial and fraudulent tickets were stamped and sold to the public. These tickets happened to be winning tickets and were cashed, so they came back into the possession of the club—each stamp is different in this respect For Race 2 the accused was issued with the stamp No. 2 and the code word •cask,’ while his partner had a stamp with No. 2 and an asterisk on it, besides the code word * cask.' In the fifth race the code word was ’ gold’ “ The stamp was used in such a way that No. 2, the identification of the seller, did not appear on the tickets. That demonstrates that the person concerned was at great pains, to ensure that the identity of the seller wa s not found, for with the number gone no one could tell from which window the tickets were sold Peculiarities of code stamps are such that they can be positively identified as being used by the accused. " The Crown case is—five totalisator tickets were forged, as a result of which some person received £5 by fraud. The accused’s stamp anpears on each of these five tickets, the accused was the only person who had an opportunity to stamp the tickets, the stamp was nlaced on the tickets in such a wav that the.seller could not be easily identified, and the accused was the onlv one who was under the neeessitv of hiding th* identity of the seller. The accused, after an interview with a'detective, admitted that he was the person who stamped the tickets sold them and kept the money,” concluded Mr Brown.

Crown witness* 1 !? save evidence along the lines of Mr Brown’s address, and the court adjourned until to-morrow.