GUILTY OF PASSING COUNTERFEIT COINS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19154, 21 August 1930, Page 16

GUILTY OF PASSING COUNTERFEIT COINS.

A verdict of guilty on three counts was returned by the jury in the Supreme Court last evening in the case in which Walter James Wright was charged on four counts with having uttered counterfeit coins. His Honor Mr Justice Adams presided. Mr Donnelly prosecuted, and Mr Thomas appeared for the accused. In three cases the coins were alleged to have been uttered on September 12, 1929. and in the fourth case on April 14 last. Mr Donnelly, in opening the case, said the main evidence was the identification of the accused as the man who passed the spurious coins. In May last the police searched the accused’s premises, and found a lot of material—plaster of paris moulds—that might have been used to counterfeit coins. Edward James Abel, Cecil John Harris and Leonard Watson Cooper, shopkeepers in Sydenham, gave evidence that the accused passed false coins to them. Jessie Carrie gave evidence that she received a false coin, but she could not identify the man who gave it to her.

Detective J. B. Findlay gave evidence of a search which he conducted of the accused’s premises. He found two plaster of paris moulds and a tin of plaster of paris. Two coins found on accused proved to be genuine. Felix John T. Grigg, Government Analyst, said he tested the coins produced and found them to be land. lie

had tested the coins found on the accused, and they proved to be good. The jury returned to Court, after an absence of half an hour, with a verdict of not guilty on the count regarding Miss Carrie, and guilty on the other three counts. Mr Donnelly announced that he would withdraw the counts against the accused of possessing moulds. Accused was remanded till Friday for sentence