THEFT OF £16,220 ALLEGED

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23751, 24 September 1942, Page 6

THEFT OF £16,220 ALLEGED

DEPARTMENT STORE BUYER TWENTY CHARGES LAID (P.A.) WELLINGTON, September 23. Raymond John Watts, an Air Force sergeant, formerly employed by Woolworths, Ltd., was charged in the Magistrate’s Court with the theft of money and cloth materials of a total value of £16,220. There were 10 charges'of theft and 10 of failure to account.. The offences covered the period of March, 1941, to April, 1942. In the charges of failure to account, the amounts ranged from £3B to £825, and totalled (£2215. Materials alleged to have been stolen were georgette, crepe, casement cloth, dress crepe, satin crepe, rayon, and art silk prints totalling 97,909 yards and valued at £14,005. Watts was also charged under the Secret Commissions Act with corruptly accepting as an agent for Woolworths a gift for himself of approximately £9O in money for doing an act in relation to his principal’s business. He was also charged with forging a Woolworths receipt for £6 ss, by altering it to £6O ss.

The case was heard by Mr J. L, Stout, S.M. Francis*H. Giles, New Zealand manager for Woolworths, Ltd., said that Watts began with the firm in May, 1937, as a trainee at Auckland. The next year he was a floor-man in the Christchurch branch, and in February, 1939, Came to Wellington as an acting-buyer. He took over full responsibility in November, 1939, as outwear and jewellery buyer. His salary when he left the firm was £ll a week and a £SO bonus that year. Giles became suspicious about Watts in May, 1942, and interviewed him. Watts admitted making money on the side and gave particulars of one transaction in which he bought 12,500 yards of crepe for the company from a man he named. It really was worth Is 3d a yard, but he agreed to pay the man 2s 9d and said the difference was divided between himself and the man. He also admitted paying considerably more for frocks than the price at which they could have been bought. The profit had been split with the man, Watts’s share being about £IOO. Watts made a written statement and was then dismissed. Further information received led to the belief that Watts had been selling the firm’s goods, and Watts, in a further statement, admitted having sold the company’s dress materials which were repacked and bought back by Woolworths. He sold at least £6OOO worth of the company’s goods and thought he received about £12,000 over 18 months.

The proceedings were adjourned till to-morrow, after evidence had been given by Robert Leeds Tasker, now a sergeant in the New Zealand Army, and formerly in business as an agent, concerning transactions he had had on his own behalf and not on behalf of the firm of W. H. Ainey and Company, with Watts, under the impression that he was handling piece goods for resale to Woolworths.