Magistrate's Court Former court clerk on theft charges

Press, 21 August 1976, Page 7

Magistrate's Court Former court clerk on theft charges

A former clerk at the I Magistrate's Court ini’ Christchurch pleaded guilty before Mr E. S. J J Crutchley. S.M., in the > court yesterday to nine charges of theft of court ij documents and a total of l $lOO in cash. |i The defendant, aged 18,! who was granted interim! suppression of name, was charged that, on nine occasions in April, May and i June, he had stolen a court: document and cash while an officer of the Crown. Seven of the charges in-: volved the theft of $lO cash! and two involved sums of! SI 5. Sergeant J. C. Rowe said; that the defendant had worked for the Justice Department as a clerk in the, civil section of the Magis-i trate’s Court. He was re-1 sponsible for handling court! documents. fees, and: receipts. His job was to record payments of fees onj a cash register and take ac-l tion on these. In each instance, a Christ-! church legal firm had lodged; a $lO or $l5 fee with the I court. The defendant had

kept the money and des-, troyed the relevant files by! burning them. “ i. Sergeant Rowe said that), the offences had come to the J notice of the court office! 1 when the legal firms had ' asked why no action had! 1 been taken on their files. The defendant’s ex-: planation to the police was 1 that he had had financial ■' difficulties and had found it J easy, because of his posi-j' tion, tc get money. By burn-! ing the files, he had thought; his actions could not be de-; tected. i Mr M. J. Glue, for the t defendant, said that he! applied for suppression ofi the defendant's name be-1 cause he was a first! offender, and had younger 1 brothers at school. , ! ] The Magistrate said’ that i ■ he wished to emphasise, ini; fairness to other members ofi’ the staff, that the defendant ) was no longer employed byi the Justice Department. He; granted interim suppression il of name only, and the mat-j ter would be reviewed onji sentence. I:

NARCOTICS CHARGES Mark William Kahi, aged ! 18, unemployed, pleaded) guilty to charges of possess-I ing morphine, pethedine, and ! diazepam, and a charge of; [possessing syringes and) ) needles for using pethedine. [ A handbag containing the drugs and the syringes and! needles was found when the police searched a car in [Christchurch on August 6,1 I the Magistrate was told. The defendant was coni victed and remanded to August 27 for reports and sentence, and was ordered to be i interviewed at the National [ Society on Alcoholism and j Drug Dependency. Sergeant Rowe said that the defendant had told the police that he had bought the drugs and instruments in 'a hotel earlier that day and ihad injected himself in a public lavatory. The defendant had had I needle marks on an arm. He [had said that he had been injecting himself with peth-, [edine and other drugs for! I about six months. I