CHARGE OF FRAUD.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18947, 17 May 1933, Page 8

CHARGE OF FRAUD.

MEAN AND CONTEMPTIBLE.

YOUNG MAN SENTENCED.

ADMITTED TO PROBATION.

(By Teleg-i ipß. Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, Tuesday

Taking the view that prisoner apparently was the tool 'of an older head and that the prosecution was brought to some extent as a warning to others, Mr Justice Ostler, in the Supreme Court to-day, admitted Keith Bartlett, aged 2i years, to probation for obtaining relief rations from the Wellington Hospital Board by falskly representing that he was the only member of his family who was working.

The Judge said the offence was mean and dishonest. For years prisoner’s family appeared to have been living on charitable aid to which they were not entitled, having, according to the papers before him, received hundreds of pounds, while the average earnings of the family had been sufficient to support it without relief.

A condition of the probation was that prisoner pay the costs of the prosecution, £l9 16s, within one year.

The Judge knew that Bartlett was only able to earn 15s per week, and the order made would mean hardship, but at the same time he did not think the State, through the Hospital Board, after having paid out some hundreds 61 pounds, should in addition be out of pocket to the extent of £l9 16s. II prisoner did not pay he would be sent to gaol. The family would have to help him pay. In the case of Mona Mildred Bartlett, sister of Keith Bartlett, who was charged with obtaining from the Hospital Board shoes, money for rent, and coal, by false pretences, by stating that none of the family was working, a verdict of not guilty was returned.