£30,000 WIN A HOAX

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19098, 20 August 1936, Page 15

£30,000 WIN A HOAX

YOUNG MAN IN COURT TAXI CREDIT BY FRAUD TWO CARS FOR PARTY (Per Press Association.) DUNEDIN, this day. In the Police Court this morning, Ernest Arthur Trimear Johnstone was charged with obtaining taxi hire credit by fraud. The original charge of being idle and disorderly was withdrawn. Chief Detective Young stated that tho charges arose from a statement to the effect, that the accused had won £30,000 in an Irish sweepstake. It was alleged that the accused caused a telephone message to be sent to the Otago Daily Times that a Dunedin plasterer named Johnstone had won this sum. . On the following morning a. representative of the Dunedin Star saw the. accused, who, in reply to a question, said the report in the Times was correct. Asked when he learned the. news, Johnstone was alleged to state that he had received a telegram the previous night from Timaru from a friend.

He naturally received considerable attention, and . commenced to borrow-, obtaining £lO from liis employer, and later another £lO before going to Timaru, allegedly to collect the ticket and with a promise to return on. the Monday. He stayed in Timaru for a week, being roynliy entertained. When doubts arose, he returned to Dunedin and was later arrested on a vagrancy charge. former. THEFT CHARGE

The present charges, arose, from tlie fact that on the Sunday night- the accused hired two taxis to take a party to Waikouaiti,

The chief detective stated that the accused appeared in the Children’s Court in Timaru in 1928, being committed to the Child Welfare Department and spending some- time at the Weraroa Farm. In 1932, he was charged with theft, at Wanganui and was returned to Weraroa.

Counsel for the accused said that there was nothing to prove that the. accused had originated the idea of tlie win. If he had done so, lie had the Opportunity to get hundreds and to skip away, but all he did was to borrow a small sum and avail himself of the glamour afforded by the publicity. His return to see his employer was not, t-lio action ol a “crook.” The fact that there was no suggestion of any other charges indicated that Johnstone was not responsible for tho original hoax. His employer was willing to take him hack. Mr. J. R,. Bartholomew, S.M., in admitting tho accused to probation for two years, stated’ that the accused was a problem case. Ho was somewhat unbalanced. The magistrate doubted whether tho accused would do much good outside institutional control, blit in view of his ago, which was 22 years, the magistrate would give him a chance. The magistrate added that he could not refrain from remarking it was unfortunate that the local press so readily lent, themselves to the, hoax. The statements might have been accepted to a considerable degree, hut in . this ease only a small sum was obtained. Had the amounts been larger, the press could not absolve themselves from a considerable degree of responsibility. An order for* ilio restitution of tho taxi hire ,at the vale, of 2s 6<l weekly was made. .