Kirk

On a jury’s verdicts defendant Kirk was found guilty of grand theft (Pen. Code, § § 484, 487) from the Bank of America, and of four interrelated offenses against the Vigilant Insurance Company, i.e., grand theft, presentation of a false insurance claim (Ins. Code, § 556), willfully secreting property with intent to defraud its insurer (Pen. Code, § 548), and falsely reporting a felony (Pen. Code, § 148.5). He has appealed from an order thereafter placing him on probation for those offenses.

Excluding all that claimed by Kirk to be tainted with error, the evidence of the trial rather conclusively establishes the following.

Kirk purchased seventeen $100 traveler’s checks from the Bank of America. Four days later, falsely claiming that the checks had been stolen from his automobile, he applied for and received a refund of $1,700 from the bank. He thereafter cashed all or nearly all of the “stolen” traveler’s checks, keeping the proceeds as well as the refund he had received. (This was the subject of the Bank of America grand theft conviction.)

Kirk paid for and was issued a $5,000 “tenant’s personal property insurance policy” of the Vigilant Insurance Company. He…