The Express.
London, England, 1853-02-01 00:00:00

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

YESTERDAY.

John Blenikhorn, 22, a respectable-looking young man,
described sac farmer, was indicted for uttering • forged
cheque for 10f., with intent to defraud.
It appeared that about half-past 7 o'clock in the evening
of the let of January, the prisoner went into the shop of
Messrs. Suckling end Benson, jewellers and silversmith., in '
Ludgate-street, and picked out a watch and chain, the price
of which was 6L 16.. He salted the shopman if he would
object to take a cheque in payment, and be replied that they
were not in the habit of taking cheques from strangers after
banking hours, but he would try and get change for him.
The prisoner then produced a cheque apparently drawn by
Henry Stoat and Co., furniture dealers, in the Westminster
Bridge-road, upon the Lambeth branch of the Royal British
Bank, for the sum of 101 and he said that he had obtained
it from Mr. Stoat. The slioproan said he would get the
change, and it was ged that the prisoner should call
again in half an hour, and receive the watch and
chain, and the balance of the cheque. The prisoner
accordingly went away, and inquiries were then instituted
which resulted in the discovery that the cheque was • false
instrument. The prisoner did not return to the shop Mete
time appointed, but on the shopman going into 41te street
late in the evening, he saw him standing close by the shop, '
and he called him in, and sent for a policeman, and gave
him into custody. for uttering a forged cheque, but upon
the prisoner hearing the charge mide against him, ho said
that if the cheque was a forgery ho knew nothing of it,
and that he had received it from a person who was a stran-
ger to him, in a betting transaction. Upon the prisoner
being searched a betting-book, showing that he bad been
. very extensively engaged in gambling upon the turf, and
several papers, among which was • bill-head of Mr. Stoat's,
were found in his possession.
Mr. Clarkson' in his address to the jury for Itlie prisoner,
endeavoured to show that he had really been made a dupe
by some other person. He said he was instructed that the
prisoner was a young man very reitectably connected in
the North Riding of Yorkshire, and that his father, who
wee .. very extensive farmer, bating only very recently
died. he hll,l come up to London, PI: mention in the SW
illatalate being merely to see the funeral of the Duke of
Wellington. Instead, however, of returning to his home, it
appeared net be had become mixed up with some of those
gambling racing establishments which unhappily abounded
is London, and he was instructed that it was at one of
them that he had received this forged cheque in payment
of some bet he bad woe.
&mend reepostable witnesses wen called oa behalf of the
primmer, and they bore oat by their evidence the statement
et the leaned moist with regard to the respectable posi-
tion of himself and his family ; sad they alio said that

they bad never heard of any blemish upon the primeser's
character up to the present moment, except the charge
then under investigation.
The learned Recorder, in summing up the case, observed
that it was certainly one of rather a peculiar character, and
it was the province of the jury alone to say whether it had
been made out to their satisfaction that the prisoner had
uttered the cheque with a guilty knowledge that it was
forged. The learned counsel had urged every point that
could be adduced in his favour, but he was sorry to my,
that if the suggestion that he had merely been the innocent
agent in the matter was true, he could not see how it could
be reconciled with the fact of the prisoner having in the
first instance stated that he had received the cheque from
Mr. Stoat himself, which statement he must have known to
be false.
The jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of
Guilty, but recommended the prisoner to mercy on account
of his previous good character.
The Recorder sentenced him to be imprisoned and kept to
hard ►abour for twelve months.