Man accused of giving valueless cheques, bail set at K2,500

THE Mt Hagen District Court imposed a K2,500 bail on a defendant charged with giving two valueless cheques totalling K5,200 to a couple.
Magistrate Betty Jacob, on Wednesday, granted the bail application filed by Alphones Nikints, who works as a salesman with a hardware company in Mt Hagen.
Nikints was arrested last week and charged with two counts of presenting two valueless cheques under the Summary Offence Amended Act.
Police alleged that Nikints wrote two cheques for K2,600 each and presented them to a couple at the Mt Hagen Police Station on May 2, 2018, in payment of a debt.
Police told the court that the couple took the cheques to Bank of South Pacific branch in Mt Hagen, but were told that there was no money in the cheque account.
Police said the couple waited two years to cash the cheque again but there was no money in the account.
Snr prosecutor Paul Urangian said the same defendant had another committal matter still pending in court.
He said the defendant allegedly received K7,000 through false pretence and was arrested and charged.
Nikints, who appeared in court from police custody, told the court the couple defied his instruction and went too early to the bank to cash the cheques.
“I told them to wait until I call them and tell them to go, after Ela Motors branch in Mt Hagen made some payments into my account for stationery items I sold to them,” he said.
Nikints said he had not been paid by the car dealer. He told the court that, due to a change of management at the company, his invoice had been misplaced and he had not been paid.
He told the court he wanted the court to grant him bail while his cases were pending.
Magistrate Jacob said if Nikints could not afford the bail, he would remain in jail until his next scheduled court appearance on Feb 26.