Court drops forgery case after request

By JACINTA COHLEE
A LAE committal court dropped a case of a man charged with three counts of forgery following a request to the court from the complainant on June 24.
Magistrate Pious Tapil withdrew the case against Peter Warkai, 30, from Hulau village in Aitape, West Sepik, and discharged him after a request by letter from the complainant.
“You should be sweating for what you want in life, nothing comes easy,” Magistrate Tapil advised Warkai.
“Go and do something interesting with your life apart from forgery.
“Next time, you won’t see any leniency from the court.”
It was alleged that on March 9, at Bank South Pacific (BSP), Top Town branch in Lae, Warkai with accomplices presented a cheque with a statutory declaration form to a teller (Misty Tawahni).
The police told the court that the bank teller got suspicious about the cheque and when conducted his checks, he saw that signatures on the identification cards did not match.
The court heard that the bank teller, with the help of his team leader, checked through the system and found that the cheque was owned by a small business (Jubum Manase Tyre Repair and Mechanical).
The court also noted that the accused and his accomplices allegedly forged and uttered the chairman’s (Talipos Lazarus) signature on the cheque and tried to defraud the bank.
The court noted that the accused and his accomplices allegedly disappeared when the teller came back to help them.
The next morning, one of them (accused) ran to the teller and asked for the cheque to be returned.
The (teller) alerted the bank security guards and he was captured and taken to the police station.