CAPT. FORSTER AGAIN.

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17419, 6 September 1928, Page 5

CAPT. FORSTER AGAIN.

COMMITTED FOR TRIAL. ALLEGED ATTEMPTED FRAUD. ACCUSED UNREPRESENTED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) iWHANGAREI, Sept. 6. Geoffrey Edward Gibson Forster appeared at the Whangarei Court today on remand from Auckland, charged that, intending to defraud, he obtained a motor-car valued at £l5O from Jennie Symes, a single woman, employed as a clerk by the Whangarei Dairy Company. The accused was not represented, but was alowed to take notes of the. evidence.

Miss Symes deposed that she went in her car to Devonport last Easter and met Forster at a boardinghouse there. The latter agreed to buy her car for £l5O, stating he had just sold his own car and addng he was employed by the Eureka Vacuum Cleaning- Company had had a big interest in a farm at Morrinsville. On April 14 the accused visited Miss Symes at Whangarei, when it was agreed that he should have the car on one week’s trial, provided he paid £lO hire if the purchase was not concluded-. On various pretexts the accused remained away from Whangarei for several weeks, and when the matter was referred to -a solicitor, Forster being advised thereof, the accused was granted deferment of prosecution in agreeing to meet Miss Symes and come to terms. ' •

Several appointments, however, failed! to materialise, and a warrant was issued for his arrest, which was affected at Auckland on August 28. Besides the letters found on the accused relating to the car, there was an application fo'r a -poistion on a farm at* Norfolk Island, stating, inter alia, that he had been an officer in His Majesty’s Forces in India, but was retired owing to disablement. He had studied the economic side of farming at Leeds University. The police produced letters from a bank manager at Tauranga repudiating the accused’s account as he issued many cheques, knowing there was no money to meet them. • On arrival at Whangarei the accused admitted to a detective thg.t Miss Symes was the owner of the car, and that he had no interests as originally alleged. He pleaded not guilty and reserved his defence. He was committed to the Supreme Court for trial, hail being renewed as before, provided, satisfactory copdijtons were forthcoming.