WOMAN OBTAINED MONEY BY USE OF VALUELESS CHEQUES

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19107, 27 June 1930, Page 9

WOMAN OBTAINED MONEY BY USE OF VALUELESS CHEQUES

S.M. Orders Her To Come Up For Sentence If Called On In Two Years

Pleading guilty to three charges of obtaining money by false pretences with intent to defraud, Elizabeth M’Jarrow, a married woman, aged 31, appeared in the Magistrate’s Court this morning before Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M. She was ordered to come up for sentence if called upon in two years, on the condition that she went to the Salvation Army Home.

The accused was charged—(l) With obtaining £l3 14s from Herbert Lawrence Partin on April 3 by means of a valueless cheque: (2) obtaining £7 10s from Henry Craig Warden on March 22 by means of a valueless cheque: (3) obtaining £lO from Lawrence Gladston Clark on March 13 by means of a valueless cheque. The accused committed all the offences at Waiau. Chief-Detective Carroll said that in each case the accused ow T ed money to the complainants, and to pay them she borrowed pheque forms and forged the names of well-known people. In each case she received change to the amounts given in the charges. The accused w r as a married woman with four children. Her husband had deserted her and she was living with another man. Mr Cavell, who appeared for the accused, said that since her husband had deserted her she had had to carry on as well as she could. She had endeavoured to get a divorce, but M’Jarrow could not be found, and she did not

have the money to carry on with the proceedings. The accused was quite prepared to go to the Salvation Army Home for a period, and he would suggest probation for her. At the times the crimes were committed she had been ill and scarcely knew what she was doing. She had spent some of the money on clothes for a child. She would pay when she obtained work again. Counsel asked for suppression of the name. “It is absolutely useless to make such an applicatoin,” said Mr Mosley. “ A woman, thirty-one years of age, commits three offences of this nature, defrauding the public—No. On one charge the woman was con'victed and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon in two years. On the other two charges she was convicted and discharged. A condition was that she remain in the Salvation Army and not be allowed to leave without the written permission of the probation officer. An order was made for the repayment of the money.