FORGERY CHARGE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20543, 19 February 1935, Page 7

FORGERY CHARGE.

Ploughman Committed for Sentence*! WANTED BONUS, HE SAYS. ' Charged with forging, Norman Chamberlain Chalmers, of Christchurch, pleaded guilty in the Police Court this morning and was committed by Mr E. D. Mosley, S.M., to the Supreme Court for* sentence. Chalmers was charged with forging an order drawn by George Hartnell for £5 12s on the National Mortgage and Agency Cpmpany Ltd.. Christchurch, by altering the word five to read “ fifty ” and by adding the figure ‘‘ 0 ” after the figure 5 with intent that it should be acted upon as genuine. Cecil Walter Hartnell, a farmer, of Balmoral, said that he engaged the accused as a ploughman. He proved unsuitable and on February I*l, witness discharged him, paying him an order for £5 12s, drawn on the National Mortgage and Company, Ltd., and signed by his father, George Hartnell. The order produced in court was the identical order, except that it had been altered to read “ fifty” instead of “five.” Bernard James Reid Wilson, a clerk in the National Mortgage and Agency Company, said that after paying the accused the £6O 12s he had examined the order closely and it was then apparent to him that it had been altered. Constable Watt gave evidence regarding the arrest of the accused. Chalmers was quite frank and appeared to be a simple-minded sort of man. He made a statement admitting the forgery, and stating that he had done it because Hartnell had not paid him a bonus as promised. He said he intended to send £4O back to Hartnell, taking £5 as a bonus.