£l000 CHEQUE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20625, 28 May 1935, Page 9

£looo CHEQUE.

Sensational Charge of Forgery. SUPREME COURT TRIAL. Per Press Association. J NAPIER, This Day. The Supreme Court was occupied with the hearing of charges arising out of an alleged forged cheque for £IOOO being paid by the National Bank at Napier in February last. The accused v/as Edward Mountford Tunniclifife, aged 40, who was charged, firstly with uttering a cheque for £IOOO, and secondly with obtaining £IOOO by falsely representing that a cheque for that amount was a good and valid order. Evidence that was given concerned the identification of the person who presented the cheque at the bank, clerks identifying the accused as that person. The cross-examination was based on the actual time of presentation and the payment of the cheque. In the lower Court important evidence was given by Allan Thomas Scott, ledger-keeper at the National Bank, who said that on February 19 a man produced to him a cheque for £IOOO. Witness took the cheque to the accountant because he noticed that the signature was not quite in agreement with the specimen held by the bank. Five or six minutes later the accountant, Collins, came and handed witness the cheque, with instructions to pay. Witness then marked the cheque and passed it back to the presenter. He saw the man present the cheque to the teller and receive the money. On March 29, said witness, he went to Palmerston North with Collins and saw the police. They went to a hotel and saw four men drinking. Witness recognised among them the man who had presented the cheque. Accused was that man. Comparisons of Signature. Alfred Keith Collins, accountant, gave similar evidence. He said from comparisons he made he was convinced the cheque was genuine. The time at which the cheque was referred to him was about 2.15. Mr Morrison (for the accused) r If that cheque were produced to you tomorrow, I put it to you that you would pay out on it. Witness: No, not now that I have examined it under a very strong magnifying glass. Edward Wardrop, teller at the bank, said he remarked when paying the money that it was a large amount. He asked the man to whom he paid it if he would care to open an account instead of taking it all away. The man said he was putting through a couple of deals and would need all the cash. Henry Hardy, sheepfarmer, of Onga Onga, said he had an’ account at the National Bank. A cheque produced was not made out and signed by him. It was from his book, but he could not say when it disappeared. Before the police visited his residence he kept his cheque book on a shelf in his kitcher He had never in his life made out cheques in favour of numbers. He did not know accused.