H. M. Advocate v Joseph
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 28 January 1929 |
| Date | 28 January 1929 |
| Docket Number | No. 10. |
| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
Lord Murray.
Evidence in Criminal Cases—Competency—Evidence of crime not charged— Evidence of similar crime committed abroad.
In an indictment the charges against the accused were that, having conceived a fraudulent scheme for obtaining money from the public in Scotland and elsewhere by means of counterfeit drafts, he (1) on 21st September 1927 uttered in a bank in Dundee a forged document which purported to be a draft of a finance company in New York, and (2) on 23rd September in the same bank pretended by telephone from London that the draft was genuine. The indictment further charged the accused with pretending, in pursuance of the scheme, in an hotel in Brussels, in October, that a forged document was a genuine draft of the same finance company.
Held by Lord Murray that, while admittedly the incident in Belgium could not be made the subject of a substantive charge, that incident and the crime charged were sufficiently closely connected to admit of evidence relating to that incident being used by the prosecution for the purpose of supporting the other charges.
Ernest Vivien Joseph was charged on an indictment which set forth:—‘You are indicted at the instance of The Right Honourable William Watson, His Majesty's Advocate, and the charges against you are that, having conceived a fraudulent scheme to obtain money from members of the public in Scotland and elsewhere, by means of false or counterfeit drafts, and having obtained possession of a number of documents purporting to be drafts by the First National Finance Company, 1841 Broadway, New York, which company, as you well knew, did not exist, you did (1) on 21st September 1927, in the branch of the Clydesdale Bank, Limited, in High Street, Dundee, utter as genuine a document purporting to be a draft granted by said company, dated 26th August 1927, for 25,000 dollars in favour of “Edward J. Harris,” said document being No. 25 of the productions lodged herewith, and said document being forged, by posting said document in London, or elsewhere to the prosecutor unknown, in a postal packet addressed to said branch of the Clydesdale Bank, Limited, which postal packet also contained a letter, dated 20th September 1927, written by you to said branch, requesting said branch to credit your account with said sum, said letter being No. 24 of said productions, and said postal packet was delivered at said branch on 21st September foresaid; and (2)...
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...the requisite conventional similarities in time, place and circumstances (Dumoulin v HM Advocate 1974 SLT (notes) 42; HM Advocate v Joseph 1929 JC 55; and Cannell v HM Advocate 2009 SCCR 207 at paras 34-35; cf the Crown Office response to the Scottish Law Commission: Report on Similar Fact ......
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