LANDLORD FINED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20679, 18 March 1937, Page 6

LANDLORD FINED

POSSESSION OBTAINED BY FRAUD By Telesrapb Pprsf Association WELLINGTON, March 17. A prosecution under the Fair Rents Act, 1936, was made in the Magistrate’s Court to-day against Leon W. Wilkens, owner of a dwelling house at Arawa Road, Wellington. The charge was that having obtained possession by representing he required the nouse for his own occupation, he relet it within six months without having obtained an authorising order from the Magistrate. The defendant, who pleaded guilty through ignorance of the law, was fined £lO. The Magistrate said the defendant had obtained possession by a false representation. It was clear that he had no intention of going into the house The case was therefore a grave one under the Act, which was designed to protect persons in occupation of houses. There was a specific provision with r espect to the obtaining of orders by false pretences. If possession was was obtained on one of the grounds mentioned in section 13 and that ground was false, or if the house was relet within six months after the landlord had obtained possession, he was liable to a fine of £5O. The case was not merely a technical breach but one where a statement was made fraudulently.