Defence to open in fraud case

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 7

Defence to open in fraud case

The defence will open its case today in the High Court trial of. a woman who has denied defrauding her husband’s employer of more than $lB,OOO over a period of almost three years. Kay Patricia Evans, aged 25. a housewife, has pleaded not guilty to 162 charges of defrauding D. M. Bain and Sons, Ltd, by drawing cheques on her husband’s imprest account with that firm. Her husband, Christopher Evans, was employed as a travelling salesman by the company at the time of the alleged offences between June, 1977, and April, 1980. Mr G. K. Panckhurst appears for the Crown and Mr W. G. G. A. Young for Evans. The trial began on Monday and is expected to finish on Thursday. Mr Justice Roper is presiding. David Malcolm Bain said that since 1977 he had run the toy -division of the company and he employed Christopher Evans early in that year. To Mr Young, David Bain said that it was correct that Mr Evans had been convicted of theft of company property which had been found in his garage. Accused had complained about the length of her husband’s trips away from home.

Gavin Morris Bain, a company director responsible for the warehouse division of D. M. Bain and Sons, Ltd, said that it was definitely not correct that Evans had told him that she had made cash advances to her husband to meet expenses when he was on the road. Mr Bain said that he did not know that Evans was drawing cheques on her husband’s imprest expense account for reimbursement for cash advances. The company had no indication that either Mr Evans or accused were using money from the imprest account for personal expenses and he. had . never received money to repay such drawings. To Mr Young. Gavin Bain said that Christmas bonuses were paid to the staff by cheque. In general terms he found Mr Evans honest. There were times when Mr Evans said, he had a more important position in the company than he actually had. He had boasted to clients that he had been going on overseas buying trips which was not true. Mr Young: Would it be fair to say that Mr Evans sometimes portrayed an image of himself larger than life? — He was a salesman and I think it was probably part of

his job and make-up, but he did do that kind of thing. It was agreed by Mr Bain that Mr Evans “was a bit of a Walter Mitty.” By the time Mr Evans's employment was terminated, his faith in his credibility was shattered. Philip Sidney Hall, an accountant employed by. the Police Department, said that Evans told him that the cheques which were the subject of the 162 charges had been written out .by her and signed by her husband and that she had paid them, into bank accounts or had cashed them. It was admitted by Evans that she had kept no records of the cash advances she had made to her husband. She had told him that she had written up her husband’s expense sheet from What he had told her. Often there were no receipts for meals or petrol. Evans said to him that she did not know why she had deposited Bains’ imprest cheques into her A.N.Z. account and almost immediately withdrew them . and paid them into her other accounts. She had given her husband cash on Sundays or Mondays before he went away on his trips.