DUNEDIN BANK FRAUD.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13287, 19 June 1936, Page 5

DUNEDIN BANK FRAUD.

PROMPT POLICE WORK. Electric Telegraph—Press Association DUNEDIN, Last Night. “The police are entitled to congratulations for their promptitude and skill,” stated Mr H. \V. Bundle, S.M., this morning when James Alexander Fleming, aged 26, a former bank employee, pleaded guilty to two charges of forgery, and was committed for sentence. The case was a sequel to the daring bank fraud on Juno 6, the accused being charged with forging a bill'of exchange on the Bank of New Zealand at Wellington for £834 16s 8d and also with procuring a young woman to cause the bill to be acted upon. Alexander Chisholm, a teller, gave evidence that at 11.20 a.m. on June 6 a woman presented a bill purporting to be signed by the hea'd of the bills department. The document also bore what purported to be the initials of the bank manager, with instructions to cash it. Shortly after the woman left witness became suspicious, and after inquiry, reported to the police. A public* typist, whose name was suppressed, stated that on June 4 she received a letter through her letter box which purported to be Irom one A. G. Spence. The envelope contained a pencilled letter, a pencilled bill of exchange, and a blank bill. Witness’s instructions were to type a letter from the pencilled one, type a blank bill from the pencilled one, and forward the completed work to Spence at the Post Office. Another young woman, a clerk attending a commercial college, stated that on June 5 the director of the college said he had given her name to a person applying for a clerk. W itness’s telephone number had been supplied to this person, and later a man calling himself Jenkins telephoned her, telling her that she was appointed to the position, and was to go to the Post Office for a letter. She did this, receiving papers and instructions to cash the bill of exchange, put the money in an attache case, and deliver it at the office of Gold Band Taxis with a letter. Witness cashed the bill and followed the instructions.

Joan Griffin, employed by Gold Band Taxis, said that the previous witness handed in an attache case and letter which were given to a taxi-driver to deliver, as the instructions said, to Cavendish Chambers, which he did. The remainder of tho evidence described how suspicion fell on the accused, resulting in his arrest some hours later, when £774 was recovered in the attache case and £26 in the accused’s pockets.