PRISON FOR DEALER ON 38 CHARGES OF FALSE PRETENCES

Wanganui Chronicle, 9 September 1950, Page 5

PRISON FOR DEALER ON 38 CHARGES OF FALSE PRETENCES

NAPIER. Yesterday.—Found guilty by a jury on 38 of 41 charges involving cer £22,000 of obta.ning money by false pretences. John Charles Beecher, of Gisborne, motor dealer, was sentenced to imprisonment totalling two years and seven months by Mr Justice Hutchison in the Supreme Court today. The jury sat for five hours before giving its decision late last night. The retrial took four days. The trial was heard originally at Gisborne in February, when Beecher was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. Beecher made a successful appeal for a retrial. > Mr Justice Hutchison said the penalty imposed at the first trial was a proper one, but he would take into consideration the fact that since that time Beecher had been serving sentence. The offence was serious, said His Honour, and Beecher’s business dealing “struck at the very root of decent 1 business methods.’’ He sentenced Beecher to six months imprisonment on five charges and one month on another, the terms to be cumulative. On each of the other Iwo charges Beecher was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, the terms to be concurrent.