THEFTS BY BREWERY WORKERS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27441, 30 August 1954, Page 9

THEFTS BY BREWERY WORKERS

10.560 BOTTLES OF BEER STOLEN (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 28. HoW three meh, two of them brewery workers, associated in the theft of 880 dozen bottles of beer from New Zealand Breweries, Ltd., and made nearly £BOO by selling it -illegally in private, was told to Mr H. J. Wily. S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland yesterday. Twenty-six charges of theft were admitted by John Ashley Best, aged 37, a clerk, 23 by James Reid Johnston, aged 52, a driver, and three by Maurice Charles Condon, aged 40, a carrier. Best was jointly charged with each of the other two.

The three were remanded till September 7 for sentence. Detective-Sergeant F. A. Gordon said Best had been a clerk in the brewery dispatch office and Johnston a driver taking deliveries from the bottling department. Condon was a driver in a carrying firm associated with the brewery. Their thefts had been found out when the manager of the bottling department found unaccountable shortages in stock. He took a carbon copy of entries from the loose-leaf ledger system for orders and discovered alterations had been made.

A clientele. had been built up with the offenders selling the stolen beer at 18s a dozen. The accused would not disclose the names of the purchasers. He said Best had received £4ll, Johnston £261 and Condon £l2O. Of all the stolen liquor, only one bottle was recovered, said Mr Gordon.