FAILURE TO ACCOUNT

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 33, 8 August 1934, Page 17

FAILURE TO ACCOUNT

PROBATION GRANTED

A plea of guilty to two charges of failing to account for a total of £56 13s 2d to the Colonial Mutual Lite Assurance Company was entered by Ernest Cecil Achilles, a chauffeur, aged 31, in the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon. My. K. Page, S.M., admitted the accused to probation for a period of three years, and made it a condition that lie j refund the money to the company at^ the rate of 10s a week or at a rate which from lime to time' may be fixed by the Probation Officer. Mr. C. A. L. Trcadwell appeared for the accused. Detective-Sergeant llevell said that for about nine months prior to June the accused was employed by the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Company as a. collector. Part of his duty was to call on policy-holders each week to collect the premiums. On June 15 he called at the office and presented a paying-in sheet showing that he had collected £13 2s 9d. This was passed, and it was then his duty to hand the sheet, together with the money, to the cashier. He handed m the sheet, but not the money. On the following day the accused notified one o£ the company's officials that he was resigning, and suggested that £13 2s Od be taken out o£. his guarantee fund. At that particular time, however, there was eatjabout £10 in the accused's fund. The accused disappeared, and was located at Hastings, where he had obtained employment as a chauffeur. When he was brought to Wellington it was found that lit addition to the £13 2s 9d there was other money for which he had failed to account. When interviewed by a detective he said he had had domestic trouble and attributed this to his lapse. Xhe accused still owed the company £56 13s 2d. In making a plea for probation, Mr. Treadwell said that six months ago the accused's wife left him and he now had to attend to the upbringing of his child who was about two years of age. The accused was not likely to appear before the Court again. If probation was granted, his employer was prepared to take him back. On the suggestion of the Probation Officer (Mr. T. P. Mills), Mr. Page granted probation.