£5439 STOLEN BY WOMAN

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26394, 12 April 1951, Page 5

£5439 STOLEN BY WOMAN

THEFT FROM WOMEN’S INSTITUTES DETENTION FOR TWO YEARS AND A HALF (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, April 11. A desire to recapture the sheltered way of life she had enjoyed when her parents were alive was the major reason given by counsel in the Supreme Court to-day for the lapse which led to a plea of guilty in the Magistrate’s Court last week by Eleanor Amanda Fletcher, aged 33, a stenographer to 10 charges of theft involvin : £5439 6s 7d. The Chief Justice (Sir Humphrey O’Leary) sentenced Fletcher to two years and a half reformative detention on the charges concerning the largest single amount, and convicted and discharged her on the other nine. Evidence in the Lower Court hearing last week was that the prisoner hadtransferred substantial sums of money to her own account from the funds of the Dominion Federation of Women’s Institute* to which she had acted as financial secretary and accountant for more than a year. Appearing for Fletcher to-day, Mr G. C. Kent said that when his client was 17 she had lost the sheltered existence to which she had been accustomed. It was in an effort to regain such life that she had committed the series of thefts from her employers. Her busband, who had arranged restitution of nearly £3OOO by the disposal of property, was willing to take her back. Theft by a servant in a responsible position of trust had a very serious effect, said his Honour before passing sentence. In this instance startlingly large sums were involved, and he could not overlook the fact that the offences were bold and deliberate, deserving of punishment He said that he had intended to impose a longer sentence, but the submissions of counsel had made a difference. He then committed Fletcher to prison for two years and a half for reformative purposes.