A FALSE DECLARATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3870, 15 May 1928, Page 18

A FALSE DECLARATION.

ORDER TO REFUND TENSION PAYMENTS. CHRISTCHURCH, May 10. Thomas Henry Ilodgin pleaded guilty in the Magistrate s Court this morning to a charge of making a false statement to the War Pensions Office. Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., was on the bench. Chief Detective Carroll said that the accused received an economic pension which depended upon his having no money in the bank, no property’, and no investments. The accused made a statement to the officer in charge that he had no such money, property, or investments. Thc amount he had received through the economic pension was £l7l. “He actually has over £lOO in the Post Office Savings Bank, and over £OOO in the Bank of New Zealand,’’ the Chief Detective continued. “ Therefore, he was not entitled to that £171.” “ Since the accused got his pension in 1917 he. has been fully incapacitated,” said Mr Graveston, for the accused. “ He has made no money from earnings or from any outside source. lie has been getting £l5 3s 4d per month as pension, and all the money he possesses has been saved from his pension. He has been three times in the sanatorium—once for IS months and once at Ilanmer Springs. When he came out of hospital each time he found the pension had been banked up. M hat was he expected to do with it?” “ Pay’ hospital expenses,” suggested the Magistrate. “ He told the Pensions Department he was saving up to start a business,” counsel continued. “He has not been in employment for ten years.” In the box the accused said that he had contracted T.B. in 1917, and had been sent back. . At first his pension was £2 10s per week, and then £3 10s per week. Thc economic pension was £1 10s per week. Thc accused was convicted and fined £lO, in default one month’s imprisonment, and to refund £l7l to the Pensions Department.