THEFT AS SERVANT

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 106, 7 May 1931, Page 12

THEFT AS SERVANT

OVER £200 INVOLVED

PROBATION PLEA FAILS

An unsuccessful plea for probation was made by Mr. A. M. Dunkley in the Supreme Court to-day on behalf o£ William Ernest Clapham, an elderly man, who had pleaded guilty to the theft as a servant of £205, the property of Wilson, Canham, arid Co., Ltd. His Honour, Mr. Justice Heed imposed a sentence o£ IS months; reformative detention.

After ' calling evidence as. to the prisoner's character, Mr. Dunkley said that Clapham's accomplice had been caught redhanded and had, it was suggested, endeavoured to make Clapham out as the instigator and master mind. However, it was obvious that a so-called master mmd, after having been warned by the police, would not voluntarily have made such a full and frank confession. Counsel added that Clapham was a single man and had no need to steal the money. His Honour: "That makes it all the worse." It could be understood were his position such that he was trying to get some assistance from the money, but according to his own statement he did not require the money and seems to have spent most of it on drink and horse-racing." "His idea was to help a man who did require the money," said counsel. "How," asked his Honour, with some asperity, "could he help the man by "taking the money and spending it on drink and horse-racing?" _ Counsel: "He helped with the scheme. His Honour: "If it was some altruistic idea of his, why did he not give the whole of the money to the other man?" Clapham could have gone much deeper into the scheme, counsel suggested. His share worked out at only 10s a week. Although the circumstances were unusual, counsel asked for probation. In passing sentence, his Honour ret erred to an allegation made against the prisoner's employers and said he felt strongly inclined to increase the sentence on that account. . However, he had decided to impose the same sentence as that passed upon the accomplice.