Accountant stole $24,400

Press, 15 August 1984, Page 4

Accountant stole $24,400

Interim suppression of the name of a former selfemployed chartered accountant convicted of stealing $24,400 from clients’ funds, was refused by Judge Fogarty in the District Court yesterday. Peter Reginald Allan, . aged 41 (Mr S. C. Barker), was remanded on bail of $2OOO to August 28 for a probation report and sentence.

He admitted the offence which took place between December 3, 1982, and March 15, this year. Sergeant W. J. McCormick said that on June 20 the police received a complaint from the New Zealand Society of Accountants regarding the activities of the defendant.

The society claimed Allan had misappropriated funds from clients’ accounts over which he had signing rights. Allan admitted stealing cheques to the value of $24,400, the property of Brian William Sadler and Kenneth William Wallace.

Sergeant McCormick said the defendant had ceased practising as an accountant and that he had made his successor aware of the offence.

In seeking bail and interim suppression, for the sake of Allan’s family, Mr Barker said his client had, of his own volition, gone to the accountants’ society which had led to the charge

being laid. .HIGH COURT A man. convicted of causing grievous bodily harm to a woman, by throwing a glass in a hotel bar, was committed to the High Court . for sentence on August 30. David Allan Pickard, aged 29, a printer (Mr S. C. Barker), pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm to Kathleen Nash on June 1.,

As a result of the barroom incident the complainant was hospitalised for two weeks, underwent two operations, and now has to permanently wear a contact lens in her right eye. Sergeant McCormick said the woman was in the hotel bar at 7 p.m. The defendant, who had earlier been involved in a disturbance in the bar, had picked up a drinking glass and had thrown it. The woman had nothing to do with Pickard. The glass had struck a table and shattered. The woman, who was leaving because of the earlier disturbance, was struck by slivers of glass. These penetrated both eyes. She also suffered lacerations to her face which required stitches. Glass fragments were removed from the right eye but the woman would now have to wear a contact lens permanently on that eye, said Sergeant McCormick. A

second operation was necessary to remove glass from the complainant’s left eye.

Pickard was to have appeared yesterday for the taking of depositions but decided to plead guilty to the charge. DEPOSITIONS

Trial by jury was sought by a salesman charged with incurring a debt of $762 with a Christchurch hotel by means of a fraud.

Peter Hapeta Mathews, aged 29, was remanded in custody to August 28 for the taking of depositions. Bail was “strongly” opposed by Sergeant McCormick, who indicated that other charges were pending. An application by Mathews, on his own behalf, for bail, was refused by the Judge. FRAUD OFFENCES

Most of the $l7OO worth of property fraudulently obtained by Marline Michelle Ahumai Smith had been sold to obtain cash to support her drug habit, said Sergeant McCormick. Smith, aged 21, a musician (Miss J. M. Drake), admitted 15 charges of fraud, and one of theft, committed between April and June.

Sergeant McCormick said that Smith had stolen a passenger’s handbag off the Christchurch-Picton bus and, after removing cash, had thrown the bag away. She had also used stolen

identification documents, two cheque books, and a bank credit card to obtain clothing, liquor, cassettes, bedding, petrol and accessories, and an $llOO guitar. Compensation of $l7OO was sought from Smith, who was remanded on bail to August 28 for a probation report and sentence. PRISON SENTENCE Five months in prison was the sentence given to a man earlier convicted of behaving in a disorderly manner in the foyer of the Christchurch Women’s Prison, and converting a $l6OO car. Richard Joseph Panapa, aged 25, unemployed (Mr P. N. Dyhrberg), admitted the offences. The Judge said visitors needed to behave in a restrained manner when visiting an institution, such as a prison, where discipline was essential. The offences were such that a custodial .sentence was warranted, he said. Panapa had gone to the prison and had signed the visitor’s book under a false name when arriving to see a friend. Asked to wait in another room for verification of details, Panapa became abusive and was told to leave. Outside he picked up a handful of stones and threw them at a female prison officer, some of which struck her.