STOLE MONEY FOR ART UNION TICKETS SOLD IN WANGANUI

Wanganui Chronicle, 5 September 1946, Page 5

STOLE MONEY FOR ART UNION TICKETS SOLD IN WANGANUI

(Special) Napier, Sept. 4. A plea that war injuries had caused his lapse was disregarded by the magistrate, Mr. J. Miller, S.M., when Herbert John Gilchrist, of no fixed abode, was charged in the Napier Court to-day with the theft of £l4 Bs, the proceeds from the sale of 16 books of art union tickets in Wanganui on April 29. Gilchrist was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. Senior-Detective O. McKenzie said that Gilchrist had been engaged to sell tickets in Wanganui and kept a satisfactory account of his sales and cash for three weeks. He was given a further 16 books by the agent, but when the money was due to be collected the agent could not find the accused. He was located at Napier by the police, to whom he said he had been ill, but had made arrangements to send the money to Wanganui. Actually, he had spent it on his own maintenance, addthe detective. “Gilchrist was charged with bigamy in 1920, and false pretences in 1922. He was certified an habitual criminal, and has a list of 22 charges against him ” said the magistrate, looking at the police records. “It appears to me that you did this thing on some sort of system,” he told the accused.