THEFT OF £1227 ADMITTED

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21647, 4 December 1935, Page 9

THEFT OF £1227 ADMITTED

ACCOUNTANT COMMITTED FOB SENTENCE AT GREYMOUTH (BFBCUX.TO TBI FUEM.) ' GREYMOUTH, December 8. Charges of theft, involving a total of £1227 9s 4d, from his employers, Duncan McLean. Ltd., merchants, Greymoutji, between 1926 and 1935,' were brought against Norman Walter Jones, aged 42, an accountant, when he appeared on remand before Mr H. Morgan, S.M., in the Majgistrate's Court this morning. Si* separate charges were laid against the accused, beginning with £SO on May 1, 1926, up to £719 3s 7d between March 28 and November 19, 1935. Detective-Sergeant Knight, who prosecuted, said that the accused had been, in* the employ of the firm for 25 years and since 1921 hei had been ledger clerk. On November 16, Mr W. J. Tyers, % public accountant, arrived from Christchurch • for ; the annual audit of'the firm's books. On November 19, owing to the non-entry of two demand drafts in the cash book and their not being accounted for, he questioned the accused, who admitted he was in trouble and had been for some time.

Further admissions were made by the accused, and 21 accounts, which he admitted manipulating, were inspected. The auditor made notes of tlie information given him by the accused, who then signed each of them, setting out the actual amounts: misappropriated and the methods by which they were concealed in book entries. The accused had signified his intention of pleading guilty to all charges. William Morris Tyers, a public , accountant, of Christchurch/ said that the accused received a wage of £6 10s a week. The witness detailed the method by which he discovered the defalcations. The accused had given him all the assistance possible and his signed statements were put in as evidence. Included in the sums stolen were £263 from actual cash receipts,. £6O from the unemployment tax on the wages of employees, and £l7 from insurance commissions and premiums.After detailed evidence as to the methods employed by the accused had been given by the auditor, the accused was committed for sentence at the next sitting of the Supreme Court at Greymouth, bail being allowed in self £3OO, with one surety of £3QO, the accused to report twice weekly to the police and not to leave Greymouth without notifying the police. The magistrate proposed to commit the accused for sentence at Christchurch, but his counsel, Mr J. W. Hannan, said he wished to call evidence as to the health of the accused.