AUDITOR TO PAY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 158, 16 April 1928, Page 5

AUDITOR TO PAY.

DEFALCATIONS BY ACCOUNTANT. LOSSES NOT DISCOVERED. CHRISTCHURCH,, This Day. In the Supreme Court, Mr Justice Adams held that Arthur L. Gray, an auditor, had been lacking in his duty toward his employers, and gave judgment for £694 in favour of the Todd Motor Company. The 6ums had been stolen from the company by an accountant in 1926, and Gray had failed to discover the thefts. The Judge said: "After careful consideration I cannot come to any other conclusion than that in failing at each of two audits to call for a list 'of the bills receivable, and in-.accepting in its place a reconciliation statement offered bv Aitchison without proper verification by reference to the bills and the bills receivable account in the ledger, defendant fr/ed in his duty to plaintiffs. That would, I think," have been the case if there had been no previous wrongdoing by Aitchison. On the question, of damages I am of opinion that plaintiffs are entitled to recover the sum of Aitehison's defalcations after the completion of the 'audit in Mav, 1926, which is agreed to be £694."