“IMPUDENT FORGERY”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 841, 9 December 1929, Page 1

“IMPUDENT FORGERY”

LETTER WRITER SENT TO GAOL TWELVE MONTHS’ “HARD” “There is sufficient to show you have a criminal character, and if I apply common sense I will treat you as such,” Mr. Justice Smith told Leonard James Monk in the Supreme Court this morning, in sentencing him to 12 months’ hard labour for forgery. “TTNFORTUNATELY, he has been in trouble before.” said Mr. Simson, who represented the prisoner. Counsel said that Monk had been out of gaol only four months and was endeavouring to go straight when he knocked a man down in an accident. He attempted to settle the matter, and communicated with a friend of the victim, and was threatened that, unless £250, later reduced to £2OO, was paid, action would be taken against him. Two or three times he communicated with the solicitor acting for the injured man, and finally, in fear of proceedings, he wrote a letter, purporting to be from the injured man, to the solicitor, intimating willingness to accept £IOO in full settlement of the claim. “He was intimidated into this foolish act by the injured man’s friend,” said counsel. “In the light of liis record of previous convictions do you suggest it was a foolish action?” asked his Honour. Mr. Simson: Yes. He is not really a criminal but a stupid man who does not seem to realise the seriousness of his acts. No harm has been done by him in the past. His Honour: Was that because his plans didn’t come off? Mr. Simson said that in the last case the £lB involved was paid. Pointing out that prisoner had served various terms of imprisonment for theft and false pretences since 1925, his Honour said that even now Monk was on remand on false pretences charges. “In this case,” his Honour added, “you wrote an impudent forged letter to the solicitor acting for the man you knocked down, stating the amount he (you) was prepared to accept.”