BORROWED FROM CLIENTS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 261, 4 August 1928, Page 15

BORROWED FROM CLIENTS

BANK MANAGER IMPRISONED “UNJUSTIFIABLE EXTRAVAGANCE” A sentence of three years’ reformative detention was imposed by Mr. Justice Sim in the Supreme Court yesterday on James Doyle Adams, a late bank manager, of Levin, aged 53, who had previously pleaded guilty in the lower Court to bringing about his bankruptcy by unjustifiable extravagance. Mr. H. IT. Cornish, who represented the prisoner, said he thought the ease one in which his client could be granted probation. “I do not know if Your Honour grants probation for this class of offence or not,” said counsel, “but I believe some of the Judges have done so.” His Honour: Yes, in some cases I have done it with some hesitation where there have been special circumstances. "The prisoner,” went on Mr. Cornish, “was for thirty-six years in the employ of the bank, and he has always had a good record. In the past eighteen months he has only worked for about six or eight months, taking casual clerical work when he could get it. He has suffered, considerably by seeing his name in print, and his wife having to go to work. It has been said that he obtained money by saying he had received a cablegram from his sister in Tasmania who was going to give him financial assistance. I now have a letter from his sister witnessed by a solicitor in Tasmania to the effect that what he said was true as she intended to come to. New Zealand and help him out of his difficulties. I also have a doctor’s eertificate to the effect that he is probably suffering from diabetes.” Mr. P. S. K. Macassey (Crown Prosecutor) said that the ease was a serious one of its kind. Adams had been borrowing money from the bank’s clients while he had been receiving a salary of over £4OO a year with a fre. house.

His Honour. stated that the general practice in such cases was not to grant probation. In the present case the proha-, tion officer recommended the granting of it, but the Court was not justified in following that recommendation as the case was a serious one. The prisoner had been obtaining loans from clients of the bank which he had no chance to repay. It seemed that he had taken advantage of his position to steal, because stealing was what it came to.