FALSE PRETENCES

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1934, Page 8

FALSE PRETENCES

STRATFORD RETAILER CHEATED. CLOTHES OBTAINED BY FRAUD. A single man, aged 22, came to Stratford from Nelson this week and obtained under false pretences goods to the value of £2 13s 3d from a retailer on Thursday. He gave his name as Ronald Turpin and told the shop assistant he was a member of the post office staff, recently transferred from Nelson. Answering to the same name at the Stratford Police Court yesterday, he pleaded guilty to the charge of false pretences and was placed on strict probation for one year by Messrs W. McInnes and H. C. North, J’s.P. The full charge was that on October 11 at Stratford, with intent to defraud, he obtained from Innes John Withers a pair of trousers, two shirts, one belt, two pairs of socks and two handkerchiefs valued at £2 13s 3d, by falsely representing that he worked in the Stratford telephone exchange and had been transferred from Nelson to Stratford. Turpin, said Sergeant T. Kelly, came to New Zealand with his parents years ago. After the death of his father and mother he was brought up by an aunt at Hastings, which he left three years ago to look for work. He was last employed at Nelson, but left there on October 6 with £4 10s in his pocket. By the time he reached Stratford, where he booked in at an hotel, the purchase of a pair of shoes and the cost of fares eliminated his capital. About 11.50 a.m. on Thursday he walked into the H.B. shop, said his name was Turpin, and asked for the goods mentioned in the charge on approval, stating that he was a clerk in the Stratford telephone exchange who had been recently transferred from Nelson. The assistant, Withers, referred the matter to the manager, who agreed to let Turpin have the goods, but when he left the shop inquiries at the post office showed that nc clerk had been transferred to Stratford recently, and Turpin, who injudiciously showed himself on the street, was pointed out to Constable G. H. Graham. Accosted, Turpin admitted what he had done and said he required the clothes, as he had secured a position in the country. He was wearing a Nelson College blazer in the pocket of which was the account of a Nelson clothier. Turpin had not been before the court before as far as the police knew, he added, but it was regrettable he had embarked on a career of crime with one of the meanest offences on the Statute. Mr. Mclnnes (to Turpin): You say you have work to go\to?—Yes, with at Toko. Well, has just telephoned to say that she won’t have you now because you should have been there on Tuesday. Turpin: I thought it was Thursday. The sergeant: Two days is a lot in the country at this time of the year. I don’t know why he came to Stratford anyhow. Turpin: There was no work at Nelson and I was told I would get work here. While the justices were conferring about the penalty, Sergeant Kelly pointed out that it was necessary to protect shopkeepers from that type of offence, and though he did not ask for a severe penalty he requested that Turpin should be treated in a maimer that would act as a deterrent. Mr. Mclnnes announced that Turpin was to be placed on strict probation for one year, the probation officer to fix the conditions. ADVERTISERS’ ANNOUNCEMENTS. The Stratford Rugby Football Club will hold a dance in the parish hall on Thursday night. Music will be by the Ambassadors’ orchestra. If sufficient inducement offers free buses will be run from Stratford and Eltham to Mahoe on Thursday night for the final hockey dance. There will be a schottische competition and novelty dances with music by the Merrymakers. The annual meeting of the Eltham Amateur Athletic Club will be held next Tuesday. All interested are invited. The Tariki Tennis Club opens its season on Tuesday./There will be a dance in the evening. Particulars are advertised. ELTHAM TALKIES. “NIGHT FLIGHT.” Thrilling and topical, “Night Flight,” to be shown at the Eltham Theatre tonight and Monday night, is claimed to be the only real, truly accurate, authentic and human airplane picture so far written. It deals with the days when night flying was new, and the inauguration by a big aviation company in South America of a service making it possible for mails from as far afield as Chile and Patagonia to be delivered at Port Natal. The principal characters are John Barrymore, stern driving manager of the airline, Clark Gable, pilot of the storm-caught plane from Punta Arenas, Robert Montgomery, pilot of the plane crossing the towering mountains, Helen Hayes, fear-ridden wife of Gable, Lionel Barrymore, the lumbering inspector of the airplanes, and Myrna Loy, wife of William Gargan, the pilot of the plane to Brazil.