FALSE STATEMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18264, 6 December 1933, Page 6

FALSE STATEMENT

RELIEF WORKER JOINED CLAIMED MARRIED STATUS Having registered firstly .as a ' widower with two children, -and -on • different dates subsequently asy/i A married man with a wife Whose age decreased by seven years in as mimy months, Hugh Connor was charged before Mr. E. L. 'Walton, H.SI., in the Magistrate’s Court this morning with having made a false statement, to an official engaged in the administration of the Unemployment. Act for the putpose of obtaining employment. After a preliminary objection by his counsel, Mr. A. A. Whitehead, to the; framing of the information had been disposed of, flic accused pleaded guilty, and was fined £u. The certifying officer, Mr. J. It. Hanlon, who prosecuted, stated that when the accused registered as unemployed in 19.11 he described himself as a widower with two children, and in July, 1932, he made a signed declalalion that he was a married lnan w-itfi two children. Tn March, 1933,. He made a statement to the effect that he was a married man with a wife aged 40, and two children, and jn October lie made a further statement that he was a married man with a wife aged 33, and two children. He stated further that he paid £l a week rent, and that his rent wjis paid up to date. . The accused was in fact a Single man with two children, towards whose support he had not contributed one penny since he had been on relief work, said Mr. Hanlon. Not had he paid any rent, and as far as could bo seen he had not paid for his hoanfOn relief work he had been j)aid 47$ 10s over a period Of 12 monthS; IS A single man he would have recjSiWc|£3o 13s, so that in that period he had ;received £3B 17s more than he shodld. Moreover, the taxpayers had had: to pay twice for the support ofAuSjChlld* ren, because the Hospital Board Had supported them. The offenoe was. regarded as a fairly serious ofyef and a maximum penalty of £2O tvati prhvided. ' 1 Mr. Whitehead, while admitting'that the accused’s action was most • repWhonsible and without justification,'explained that the accused was prjacti&Hlly illiterate, and when the partietllafs wore being supplied a relative with whom he had been staying 4iieia4iM the point with him, and they agreed that having ttvo children whs much the same as being a married map. Counsel pointed out also that tfee accused had had to work for the mbnet he had received, and that if a heayv penalty were imposed it wophl *to quite impossible for him to pay, fIS fit present he was being refused work Of any kind. ; ■ U-. : 5 The magistrate imposed a. fine of £O- - costs 10s, and after hearing Senior-Sergeant Wade, refused to allow the accused tiiilo for.the payidollt of the line. »•...