ACCOUNTANT'S THEFTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 157, 6 July 1931, Page 3

ACCOUNTANT'S THEFTS.

SENTENCE OF TWO YEARS

JUDGE KEFUSES PKOBATION,

An accountant for an Auckland motor firm, Frances Walter Gardner, 39 (Mr. King), was sentenced by Mr. Justice Smith at the Supreme Court to-day to two years' reformative detention on two charges of theft as a servant.

Mr. King said the prisoner had been an accountant with the firm for two years. He had commenced drinking with friends for social reasons, and in November last gave way to a temptation to take £2-5 of his employers' money, intending to pay it back when he got a bonus the following month. The bonus was £39, but Gardner did not use it to make good the amount he had taken. He gradually became more and more involved, and after a few months confessed to his employers. He gave them every assistance in tracing the defalcations. Not a penny had gone into his home, and his wife and little son 'would suffer from his crimes. He had been away on active service for five years during the war and had been affected by poison gas.

His Honor said that in 17 months the total stolen was £311. Evidence had shown that the total shortage was £269. It was quite impossible to grant probation. A series of thefts, over a Ion"period, combined with the fact that the prisoner was in a responsible position, made it necessary that the Court should impose some penalty. The sad feature with such a case was that the social and commercial punishment was very great, and the prisoner would find it exceedingly difficult later to obtain employment of the same kind.