“A VERY MEAN AFFAIR”

Taranaki Daily News, 8 December 1930, Page 2

“A VERY MEAN AFFAIR”

ATTEMPT GET MONEY BY FRAUD. I SKIP’S FIREMEN SENT TO PRISON. “The whole thing was a very mean affair,” said Mr. R. W. Tate, b.M., at the New Plymouth Court on Saturday, when sentencing Alfred E.' I’. Mangan, and William M. Belshaw to 48 hours imprisonment with hard luboui foi a--tempting to obtain 14s. each from E. J. Carr, secretary of the Returned ' diers’ Association, by falsely represeutins they had not been paid. by Robert C. Hughes for work done, The 31 ’ a trate gave them the benefit of the doubt on a charge that they obtained Os. trom R. C. Hughes by falsely., representing they had not been paid for work done. Mangan was represented by M’ • 0.Macallan and Belshaw by Mr. C. Yhite. Detective Meiklejohn took the case for the police. . ". , On Friday, November 28, said E. u, Carr, they came to him to ask for work. They said they Wfere returned men and he them half a day’s work that daiF In the evening he paid each man 7s. and took a receipt. He had nothing to do with the arrangement for the work they did on the Saturday. On the following Monday they came back to witness with a letter from Hughes. They said they had come for their pay. They, said they had not been paid by*Hughes for work done for him. Witness telephoned Hughes, who said he had paid them £l. He told the men be could do nothing more for them without reference to his executive, and advised them to go and pay back the 6s. to Hughes they had been overpaid. They had no papers to show they were returned men, otherwise they would have been given a day’s work at once. " To Mr. Macallan: Belshaw was the man who did most of the talking. He suggested they should pay back the 6s. to Hughes before he repaid Hughes the 14s. for which he held the receipt. To Mr. White: They said the money they got from Hughes was a loan.* The note from Hughes vvas to say they had done half a day’s work on Baines Terrace and were entitled to pay. There was nothing on the : note about having received £1 on account of wages. To the magistrate: The men did two half-days’ work—,on the Friday and on the Saturday. The first half-day witness paid for and the second was paid for by Hughes on .tyehalf of the Beautifying Society. Robert Clinton Hughes, president and secretary of the Beautifying Society, said that he arranged to give the two men work on the Friday and Saturday afternoons. On the Saturday afternoon one of - them said they wanted some money to carry them over the weekend, and he went to his office and gave thehi a cheque for £1 to carry them over. He did not know they had been paid by Carr, and thought there would be 2Ss. at his office against the £1 witness had advanced. To Mr.’White: There was nothing m the note to Carr about the £l. It was not a loan, but an advance against wages. Detective Meiklejohn said the two men were arersted at Stratford and witness interviewed them when they were brought to New Plymouth. Belshaw made a. statement as to his movements in New Plymouth from the time of. his arrival on November 24. He obtained the work referred to, and on Saturday afternoon Hughes gave him a cheque for XI, which was cashed at a tobacconist’s shop. He and Mangan called at Carr’s office on the Monday morning to collect their wages and were then told, that they had been paid by Hughes actually 3s. each more, than they were entitled to. They did not go back to Hughes, but went to Waitara. Mangan saw'the statement by Belshaw and said it was substantially correct. The defence, said Mr. White, was that the amount given by Hughes was thought to be a gift or a loan and was not regarded as wages. That was supported to some extent by the fact that no mention was made by Hughes in the note he sent Carr. Cross-examined, Belshaw said he did not tell Hughes he had been paid by Carr for half a day’s work on Friday. He thought the £1 was a loan. If it had been for wages he would have expected to be asked to sign for it. He was a ship’s fireman and had been in New Zealand, this time, for six weeks. On leaving New Plymouth he and Mangan went, to Waitara, where they received assistance and they were helped also at Inglewood, Stratford, Eltham apd Hawera. He admitted he had been before the court at Auckland and Wellington. To the magistrate: They had no intention of running away from New Plymouth, and if he had known there was a wararnt for him he would never have left the place. They really believed that Hughes had given them the money to tide them over the week-end.

Answering the detective he said they expected to resume work on the Monday morning. The money they had from Hughes could then have been deducted from their wages. It was when they were iu town on the Monday morning they heard the freezing works had open-ed-and they expected to get work there. That was why they went to Waitara. As there was no proof of Mangan’s intention to defraud Mr. Macallan submitted there was no case for him to .answer.'

Mr. Tate said he would give the men the benefit of a doubt whether there was any false representation to Hughes that they had not been paid by Carr. Hughes did not know they had been, paid the 7s. each the day before, and there was no' representation to him that they had not been. He had paid them on account to see them over the weekend.- ,

The whole thing was a very mean affair. These two men had gone to the secretary of the R.S.A., who was naturally anxious to help them. ’ They had alsb gone to the president of the Beautifying Society—a man to whom the town was greatly indebted, and a man who assisted in the work of his society a very great deal and had taken him down. However, there was no evidence justifying a conviction and he intended to dismiss this charge. There was evidence that they tried to, get money from Carr after being paid by Hughes, continued the magistrate. “I think there was a deliberate attempt to get the money,” he said, “and they will be convicted.

If the magistrate hold there was a case for him to answer, said Mr. Macallan, lie would ask that Mangan bo heard. Mangan- 1 said that being out of work he went to the secretary of the Returned, Soldiers’ Association, and naturally thought he would be “straight 'shooting.’’ They had no intention of asking Carr for any money that was not •coming to them as wages. Neither Hughes nor Carr had asked them if the other had paid.

In answer to the detective he said he had been 31 days in hospital. When dismissed from his ship he drew £lO. He admitted he had been drinking, but said he had paid for everything he had. They had received free meals and beds in all the Taranaki towns, and because they were out of work and had no money with which to pay. The magistrate said he was sorry he had committed himself before having heard this man, otherwise he might have dealt with the matter more severely.