BANK TELLER ON TRIAL

Evening Star, Issue 18741, 17 September 1924, Page 7

BANK TELLER ON TRIAL

COMMERCIAL BANK BOBBERY. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Press Association. MELBOURNE, September 16. ■(ReceivecFSeptember 17, at 1.30 a.m.) The trial is proceeding of Alfred William Ohittock.on a charge of stealing £535, the property of the Commercial Bank of Australia, Cliittock, who is still suffering from the wounds, attended the court on crutches. The evidence given was similar to that cabled at the time of tho robbery. The police suggested that Cliittock inflicted one of the wounds upon himself, and then inadvertently shot himself in the foot.

Cliittock adhered to his original story of the robbery, and of his being wounded by the robber, [The following is tho account given at the time of the occurrence:—Tho manager (Mr Morgan) arrived at tho Canterbury branch of the Commercial Bank in the morning, and found that the telephone was out of order, and a few minutes later 'a neighboring shopkeeper told him that he was wanted by the head office on the shop telephone. After Mr Morgan had left to go to the telephone a teller named Chittock entered the hank, and was confronted by an armed man, who told him not to move or he would be shot. The intruder then' snatched a bank revolver from the wall and grabbed a handful of notes from a drawer, Mr Chittock rushed for another revolver which was in tho manager’s room, and as ho secured it the robber closed wivh him. Mr Chittock fired a shot, but missed, and the man replied with two shots, wounding Mr Chittock in the foot and hand. The thief then escaped through the bank door. Mr Chittock was conveyed to hospital. His wounds were not serious. The robbery had evidently been carefully planned, as the bank telephone wires had been cut, and the manager found when he went to the shop that ho was not wanted on the telephone. An accomplice had apparently rung up to decoy him from the bank, while the other must have effected an entrance to the bank in tho early hours of the morning. Chittock was afterwards arrested and charged with theft.] ■ ■