Judge criticises clerks

Press, 20 May 1981, Page 7

Judge criticises clerks

PA Auckland A Judge at the High Court at Auckland has. at tacked the “slackness” of clerical workers and said that the banking system "is not what it used to be.” . Mr Justice Chilwell was hearing an appeal against a sentence imposed on Tataoro Ngere Strickland for defrauding the Inland Revenue Department. ..• ' Strickland, aged 21, unemployed, of Pohsonby, had obtained an Iriland Revenue cheque payable to another person and had banked it-

into his own account, his Honour said. Strickland was able to make the deposit, of $lB5, because the bank teller had not noticed that the cheque contained someone else’s name. - j . “I am disturbed tha’t the chequeing and banking system is not what it .used to be.” he told the Qourt. “Amendments to the Cheques Act designed to speed up transactions are one of the causes of . this.' “But I can’t help feeling that there is a slackness in

the clerical community today which allows this sort of thing to happen.” He allowed Strickland’s appeal against a sentence of three months periodic detention imposed by the District Court and instead sentenced him to 80 hours community service. His Honour said periodic detention was inappropriate in Strickland's case because he was occupied with his family every Saturday in various activites of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. - .