The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-27 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD CIRCUIT'.—READING, Feb. 26.
(Before Mr. Justice Crompton.)
Robert Wrixton was indicted for forging at Ox
ford a check for £7O, drawn upon the London and
County Bank at Abingdon. The indictment also
contained a count for uttering the same knowing it
to have been forged.
Mr. Sawyer appeared for the prosecution •_b,,e.
prisoner was -uodefexided by counsel.
It appeared by the evidence of Mr. Undershell,
banker, of Oxford, that on the 11th December last
the'pris'ner called at his bank, produced a cheque
for £7O drawn upon the London and County Bank
at Abingdon, signed "Arthur Gledstane," and bear-
ing the endorsements of "Gledstanes and Co., 26,
Austinfriars," and " Gerald F. De Livers," and re-
presenting himself as a member of Exeter College,
requested the witness to cash it, observing that he
was in want of money to pay a bill at the Star
Hotel, and defray the expenses of "going down," a
phrase in use among members of the University, and
signifying leaving at the end of term. Witness,
knowing nothing of the prisoner, or of the persons
whose names were on the cheque, declined to cash
it, but offered, if the prisoner could do nothing bet-
ter with it, there being a branch of the London and
County Bank at Oxford, to present it for him in the
usual way. The prisoner then left, but shortly re-
turned, saying he had missed the train to Abingdon
and consequently could not present it himself as he
had intended, and left the cheque with witness for
presentment. Witness undertook the presentment
and gave the prisoner two blank cheques of his own
bank, to be used as soon as the cheque on the Lon-
don and County Bank should be honoured. The
latter cheque was forwarded in due course to Abing-
don, and returned marked—" No account at the
Abingdon Bink." The prisoner called next day to
know if the money had arrived, which could not,
however, have been the case until the next day.
One of the blank cheques given to the prisoner by
the witness was presented filled up for £lO by the
head waiter of the Star.
A cashier, from the London and County Bank at
Abingdon, proved the presentment of the cheque,
the subject of the indictment, and that there was no
customer of the bank bearing the name of "Arthur
Gledstane : and, further, that the cheque thus signed
was one contained in a blank cheque-book issued
to a customer of theirs named Bullock.
Mr. Bullock, a farmer, near Abingdon, proved
that to accommodate a Mr. Williams, a friend of his,
and a farmer in the neighbourhood of Birmingham,
he had given him four blank checks from the book
issued to him by the London and County Bank.
This was some time between the 21st of July and
the 9th of October in last year.
Mr. Williams proved the receipts of the blank
checks from Mr. Bullock, three of which were filled
up and used by himself.
Mrs. Williams, wife of the last witness, proved
that the fourth check remained for some time in her
workbox. The prisoner was a visitor at her hus-
band's house for some months up to the end of
December, and she missed the check from her work-
box shortly after his departure. It was also proved
by a clerk of Gledstanes and Co. that there was no
person named Arthur Gledstanes connected with
their firm, and Mr. Be Livers, an undergraduate of
Exeter College, deposed to the fact that theindorse-
ment of his name on the check was not wpitten by
him or with his authority.
The jury found the prisoner guilty of uttering
the check knowing it to have been forged, and the
learned Judge sentenced him to four years' penal
servitude.