THEFT AS SERVANT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 143, 13 December 1940, Page 9

THEFT AS SERVANT

GOVERNMENT FUNDS

SENTENCE OF NINE MONTHS (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, December 13. "He has been in Te Awamutu for 20 years and is well respected and has a wonderful reputation for efficiency," said counsel, Mr. Preston, in appealing for probation for Stephen Granville Riddell, aged 40, a postal official, who came up for sentence before his Honour Mr. Justice Fair in the Supreme Court for theft as a servant of Government money approximating £500. Counsel said that Riddell has worked his way up from messenger to supervisor jn the Te Awamutu office. His domestic life had been unhappy, and from a net salary of £5 11s a week he had to meet £2 15s a week in maintenance. He was not addicted to gambling. His Honour: No, but it is perfectly clear that on his salary he could not afford to own and run motor-cars, and he persisted in doing so. It was impossible to grant probation, said his Honour. Instead of. living within his salary he had chosen to live comfortably by a series of thefts. Giving full weight to all that counsel had said, the least sentence that could be imposed was nine months' imprisonment.