THEFTS FROM BANK

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 137, 22 March 1935, Page 8

THEFTS FROM BANK

CLERK PLEADS GUILTY, SUM OF £1206 INVOLVED. (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, March 21. John Wesley Dexter, aged 26, a hank clerk, admitted in the Police Court to-day that while employed by the Bank of New South Wales he stole, between August, 1932, and Feb- “ ruary, 1935, sums totalling £1206. Another bank clerk, in evidence, said that on February 4 he was relieving at a. city branch and about 11.30 o’clock that night he had occasion to go to the cloakroom for some matches. In the darkness he put his hand in the pocket of a coat hanging from the wall, thinking it his own coat. In the pocket he found a number of letters and credit slips. He examined the bank-books and found in some cases that amounts shown on the slips had been entered in customers’ passbooks, hut not in the ledgers. Witness also \ examined the teller’s books and found that sums shown on the credit slips had not. been entered there. He reported his discoveries to the manager. A detective produced a statement by the accused admitting eyerything. He said that about two years ago, through illness in his family, he was in financial difficulties and began stealing money paid in by customers. His method was to suppress the credit slips, manipulate the ledgers and at the weekly balance deduct the shortages from the larger accounts to balance the amounts stolen from the smaller ones. He kept a private note of the moneys ho took. As time went on he got deeper in the mire and he gambled in an attempt to retrieve his position. He had since made restitution of '£69. The accused was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.