Hampshire dealer guilty of selling antiques with forged signatures (From Daily Echo)
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Hampshire dealer guilty of selling antiques with forged signatures
6:48pm Thursday 25th October 2012 in News
Hampshire dealer guilty of forging famous signatures
A FORMER Hampshire antiques dealer has been found guilty of fraud by a jury at Southampton Crown Court.
Allan Formhals was too ill to appear in court yesterday to be told he was guilty of eight charges of selling books with forged signatures of people including Winston Churchill.
The 66-year-old was found guilty of two charges of being in possession of articles for the use in fraud which included forged autographs of JRR Tolkien.
The signatures of other notable figures from history and literature involved in the case, included Elizabeth I, Oliver Cromwell, TS Eliot, and artist Pablo Picasso.
A jury found the Milford-on-Sea man not guilty of two similar charges after nine hours of deliberation.
Formhals, who had suffered a heart attack while he was in custody, was taken to hospital yesterday morning with high blood pressure.
Three remaining charges are yet to be decided upon by the jury.
Judge Peter Henry has asked them to consider a majority verdict.
Comments(7)
sparkster
says...
11:30pm Thu 25 Oct 12
sass
says...
1:31am Fri 26 Oct 12
Over the Edge wrote:Was it a Charles Dickens, or the Charles Dickens? There are probably several.
Anyone who signs a book with Charles Dickens signature printed after Dickens was a long time dead deserves nothing more a guilty verdict.
Over the Edge
says...
8:42am Fri 26 Oct 12
sass wrote:Is was the Charles Dicken's of Shakespeare fame.
Over the Edge wrote:Was it a Charles Dickens, or the Charles Dickens? There are probably several.
Anyone who signs a book with Charles Dickens signature printed after Dickens was a long time dead deserves nothing more a guilty verdict.
Georgem
says...
1:42pm Fri 26 Oct 12
Over the Edge wrote:If he really did that, his lawyer sucks donkey balls. Anyone dumb enough to fall for that is a moron, so it could be proven that it was not an attempt to deceive. "Come off it, m'lud, even the most cretinous simpleton would not believe Dickens' signature on a book printed in 2003 to be genuine!"
Anyone who signs a book with Charles Dickens signature printed after Dickens was a long time dead deserves nothing more a guilty verdict.
Over the Edge
says...
2:07pm Fri 26 Oct 12
Georgem wrote:The expert in the trial when asked if the Charles Dickens signature was genuine or fake he replied fake, when pushed for an explanation of how he came to that conclusion the expert replied and I quote
Over the Edge wrote:If he really did that, his lawyer sucks donkey balls. Anyone dumb enough to fall for that is a moron, so it could be proven that it was not an attempt to deceive. "Come off it, m'lud, even the most cretinous simpleton would not believe Dickens' signature on a book printed in 2003 to be genuine!"
Anyone who signs a book with Charles Dickens signature printed after Dickens was a long time dead deserves nothing more a guilty verdict.
''Charles Dickens was very much dead when this book was published''
Georgem
says...
2:34pm Fri 26 Oct 12
Over the Edge wrote:Script writers spend years trying to come up with dialog like that!
Georgem wrote:The expert in the trial when asked if the Charles Dickens signature was genuine or fake he replied fake, when pushed for an explanation of how he came to that conclusion the expert replied and I quote
Over the Edge wrote:If he really did that, his lawyer sucks donkey balls. Anyone dumb enough to fall for that is a moron, so it could be proven that it was not an attempt to deceive. "Come off it, m'lud, even the most cretinous simpleton would not believe Dickens' signature on a book printed in 2003 to be genuine!"
Anyone who signs a book with Charles Dickens signature printed after Dickens was a long time dead deserves nothing more a guilty verdict.
''Charles Dickens was very much dead when this book was published''
Over the Edge says...
8:13pm Thu 25 Oct 12