PROBATION FOR BANK CLERK

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 255, 25 July 1935, Page 5

PROBATION FOR BANK CLERK

Theft of Documents

NOT GUILTY PLEA TO OTHER CHARGES

X plea of guilty to stealing two letter-of-credit forms and a document containing a specimen signature of a bank officer was entered by Alfred James Jackson, aged 35, when he appeared liefore Mr. Justice Smith in the Wellington Supreme Court yesterday. Jackson, who had been 20 years in the service of the National Bank of New Zealand, was admitted to probation for two years. The Crown accepted his plea of not guilty to three other charges —namely, attempting to obtain from the National Bank at Greymouth £3O and £550 respectively by a false pretence and allegedly forging a purported letter of credit authorising the bank’s Australian agents io negotiate cheques to the extent of £BOO.

Attention to two special features of the case wes drawn by Mr. IV. I’. Rollings, counsel for prisoner. According to the evidence in the depositions, ho said, any offences that might have been committed in connection with the charges which had been withdrawn were committed outside the jurisdiction of New Zealand, and there was still a possibility, although remote, of accused having to answer to those charges m another country after having been extradited there.

Returned Voluntarily

Mr. Rollings asked the court to take into consideration only the charge to which prisoner had pleaded guilty. The second special feature of the case was .that he went to Australia, where the alleged offences were committed, and came back voluntarily to New Zealand. On the day he landed here he called on the general manager of the National Bank and handed him a statement, and later he gave’ another statement to a detective which formed practically the only evidence against him. If he had come back to New Zealand quietly and said nothing about the matter at all, it would have been very difficult indeed to have brought any charge against him. He was in the position he was in to-day by reason of bis own true repentance and frankness in coming back to New Zealand and laying the whole facts before his employers. He had not been tn trouble before.

The facts as set out in the probation officer’s report were, he bad been instructed by prisoner, correct. He was 35 years of age and had been in the National Bank since a youth, -with the exception of a short period when he was rabbiting for health reasons. He attributed his present position to a combination of debt and ill-health and to a certain extent to an indulgence in liquor due to those contributing causes. Superannuation Forfeited. Apart from the fact that prisoner had lost his employment in the bank he had also been fined £2OO or thereabouts for any .misdemeanours he had committed, because of the fact that alj along, with other employees, he had contributed 4 per cent, of his salary to the bank’s superannuation and fidelity guarantee fund. Counsel said he had been instructed by prisoner that it was an absolute rule of that fund that an officer dismissed for misconduct forfeited entirely the whole of his contributions. Not only that, but any amount which the bank considered it might have been deprived of by an accused's actions could be automatically reimbursed from the fund.

“I submit,” added Mr. Rollings, “that in all the circumstances of the case, the sentence of the court may well be almost a nominal one.”

IVliy Crown Accepted Plea. The Crown prosecutor, Mr. I?. S. KMacassey, salt! it was because the alleged offences were committed in Australia and not in New Zealand that he felt constrained to accept the plea of not guilty on the three charges and guilty on the other. From the depositions it seemed quite clear that he either operated on the letters of credit himsglf in Australia or had a confederate. He was in Melbourne on May 3, when the first letter of credit was operated on there. On his own statement he left that night for Sydney, and the following day iu Sydney he or his confederate attempted to operate on the other letter. He knew his name was on it, and he knew, of course, that he would be found out when he came back. If he had remained in Australia, there was little doubt he would have been prosecuted over there. From the letter he wrote to the general manager it did not appear that he was repentant. In his statement he denied he had forged the name of Mr. Roche, accountant in the bank at Greymouth, to the letter of credit It was perfectly clear to any ordinary man that he did forge Mr. Roche’s signature. His Honour: I can’t take that into account. Mr. Macassey: My friend has put the surrounding circumstances, and I thought I would just put them to your Honour. His Honour’s Views. “It appears you have been in a trusted position iu the bank,” said his Honour in addressing the prisoner. “You are now 35 years of age, and have no previous convictions. It also appears that you suffered some ill-health and as a result of certain speculations you left this country, but, as I said before. I cannot take these matters into account I have only to consider you are 35 years of age. with no previous convic tions, and that you are losing now £2OO which you have paid into the National Bank toward the superannuation fund. Terms of Probation. “Limiting myself to the fact that this is a first offence and that the charge is only on stealing certain forms, I think I am not justified in imposing a sentence of imprisonment even though you occupied a trusted position. On the other hand. I must make it plain that an offence of this sort is serious. You will be admitted to probation for two years on the usual terms and on the special term that you pay the sum of £lO toward the cost of the prosecution at some time during the period of probation to be fixed by the probation officer. The probation officer thinks the lesson you have had will be sufficient to induce reformation on your part, and I trust bo will prove to be correct.”