STOLE £5000 FROM P.O.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 14

STOLE £5000 FROM P.O.

Probation For

‘Special Case’

(N.Z. Press Association) HAMILTON, February 17. A Post Office clerk, Richard Leslie Edwards, aged 22, appeared before Mr L. M. Inglis, S.M., in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court for sentence on six changes of the theft of money from the Tirau post office.

The thefts amounted to £5074 6s 3d. Edwards had confessed to taking the money by manipulating savings bank deposits, forgery, and robbing the till. Edwards had weakened and succumbed to temptation, and the weakening of his willpower was a result of illhealth, said Mr B. Bell for Edwards-

Normally, said Mr Inglis, theft from an employer for large amounts earned a substantial term of imprisonment.

“If you were older and in good health you could have had two years,” he told Edwards. “I could not send you to prison and I’m not in favour of a fine. “Your circumstances are very special indeed. You will be released on probation for three years, and will repay annually a sum not exceeding £2OO, at the discretion of the probation officer. He stipulated £2OO because he thought it was enough for a man in all-health to find annually, said Mr Inglis.

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