CASHIER'S CONFESSION

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 19

CASHIER'S CONFESSION

PROBLEM FOR POLICE. The disappearance from the coffers of the Opern Comique of 527,000f. has confronted the Paris police with a very curious problem. It has also caused the greatest' surprise in both artistic and administrative circles of this famous theatre for, according to his own story, It is the chief cashier, Picard, who has taken the money. He called on M. Guillaume, Commlssaire of tho Detective Service, and asked to be arrested as a thief, declaring that for four years past he had been stealing money from the funds of the Opera Comique in his charge, until the total of the thefts now amounted to r>27,000f. Picard, who is sixty-three, had at first great difficulty in getting his story believed, for he has for fifteen years past occupied his post of trust, and was regarded by all who knew him as a model of Integrity in both business and private life. Yet he declares that he has spent the whole of this money ln luxurious pleasures an,d ln gambling. Investigations nt the Opera Comique showed that the sura mentioned by Picard was actually missing, but the directors of the theatre decline to believe that embezzlement has been going on. They suspect that the whole 6um was stolen at one time recently, when they say Picard paid ln about 000,000f. less than he should have done.