GAMBLING AT FORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 13, 16 January 1941, Page 8

GAMBLING AT FORT.

CLERK HAD TO STEAL. (P.A.) WELLESfGTOX, Wednesday. Gambling debts incurred at Fort Dorset were blamed by counsel in the Magistrate's Court to-day when a clerk and a fur factory manager, both aged 20, pleaded guilty to stealing from the office of the clerk's employers £76 in money and a wages book and social security gtamps, valued at £9 2/ They were admitted to probation for two years by Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., who suppressed their names. Mr T. P. McCarthy, for the clerk, said he came of a highly-respected family. Early in the war he was called up for service at Fort Dorset, where he played poker and so incurred debts amounting to £30 by the time he was released from service at his employer's request. He gave promissory notes for the money owing and threats, were made against him that he would have to pay He borrowed £40 from a moneylender for this purpose, and when he got into arrears with his repayments he committed the offences with which he was now charged. Mr. A. J. Mazengarb said the other accused was actuated originally by a desire to help his friend. He had no financial worries.