Four Admit Thefts From Employer

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31196, 21 October 1966, Page 8

Four Admit Thefts From Employer

Four men who appeared in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday before Mr E. A. Lee, S.M., pleaded guilty to charges of theft as a servant of goods, of a total value of £2212 10s 6d, the property of Smiths City Market, Ltd. They were all remanded on bail to October 31 for sentence. They are Terry Robert Downs, aged 33, a clerk (Mr A. D. Holland) who admitted stealing articles, valued at £l2ll 12s 6d and receiving articles,, valued at £27 15s when he knew they had been dishonestly obtained; David Keith Stirling Kidd, aged 43, a clerk, who admitted stealing goods valued at £432 3s 6d: Peter Conway Dimmock, aged 43, a salesman, who admitted stealing goods valued at £262 5s 6d; and Herbert James Wilson, aged 43, a salesman, who admitted stealing goods worth £306 9s and with receiving articles, valued at £l7 when he knew they had been dishonestly obtained. The offences were committed between July 5 and October 4 and the property stolen included beds, mattresses, refrigerators. washing - machines, radios, clothes-driers, heaters, cake mixers and lawn mowers. Sergeant F. G. Mulcare said that Downs told the police that shortly after he joined the firm he approached a member of the staff and asked to buy a cutting head for an electric razor. He was told that it was not necessary for him to pay for it. Subsequently Downs was approached by the same man and other members of the staff and asked to deliver property which they had stolen. Downs agreed and delivered the goods and received money for his services. Downs had said that the

thefts were made extremely easy by the way the business was run. As a driver for the firm Downs was required to obtain goods from the company’s Montreal street store to replace items sold at the Colombo street shop, said Sergeant Mulcare. Downs received only a pencilled note of what was required and this was later destroyed. He loaded his own truck at the store as only one storeman was employed there and he was busy with other duties. As well as the goods Downs was authorised to obtain, he also put on the truck anything he decided to take for his own use or which he had been requested to steal by other employees. Restitution by Downs amounted to £6O. He was a married man with four children. Mr Holland said that the facts in the police summary were a little unfair to Downs. He had been charged with the theft of the goods he had delivered yet he got only £2OO or £3OO worth for himself. Sergeant Mulcare said that Dimmock freely admitted the offences when he was seen by the police. He had said that he had been approached by a member of the firm in July and as a result he arranged for the driver to deliver goods to his home. He told the police that he thought he had committed the thefts because of greed. He was married with a family. Kidd had told the police that he had committed the thefts because it was so easy! to get away with it. Sergeant Mulcare said that; Wilson’s excuse for the thefts was that he felt that the firm had not recognised his full worth and he had taken the goods to make up for this. He was married and his restitution amounted to £l7 10s.