Lawyer charged with theft

Press, 14 November 1984, Page 9

Lawyer charged with theft

PA Auckland A lawyer, George William Stuart Boyd, was committed for trial on charges of stealing money from Terrence Alexander Sinclair after a depositions hearing in the District Court at Auckland yesterday. Boyd, aged 30, of Parnell, pleaded not guilty to three charges of theft of $25,000 or, alternatively, $lO,OOO from Sinclair and to forging the signature of Charles David Goldfinch, also known as Terrence Sinclair, on a memorandum of transfer.

The hearing was before Judge Bremner, who committed Boyd to the Auckland District Court for trial.

Bail was allowed. Declining an application by counsel, Mr Lloyd Brown, Q.C., for continued suppression of Boyd’s name, the Judge said that the grounds advanced were the health of the defendant's mother, the embarrassment publication would cause to Boyd’s firm, his partner and its clients, and the fact that another lawyer awaiting trial had been given suppression of name. The Judge said that while he took into account the presumption of innocence, the grounds had to be weighed against the public’s right to know, which he considered to be uppermost.