AN ACCOUNTANTS OFFENCE

Evening Star, Issue 21147, 6 July 1932, Page 9

AN ACCOUNTANTS OFFENCE

THEFT OF LARGE SUM OF MONEY [Per Unhid Press Association.] WELLINGTON, July 6. Archibald Walter M'Coll, aged fortyseven, an accountant, was charged in the Magistrate’s Court to-day with tho theft of £1,627 16s lid from the funds of New Zealand Roads Ltd. Ho pleaded guilty, and was committed by Mr Page, S.M., to the Supremo court for sentence. In the course of his evidence Charles Bridger Walker, barrister and solicitor, and confidential secretary to the Hope-Gibbons family, said that New Zealand Roads was purely a family company, all the shares being held by the members of the Hope-Gibbons family. In 1927 the company wont into liquidation, and the accused was appointed liquidator, at first on a salary of £6OO, and later at £BOO a year. Witness had gone into tho question of the defalcations with the accused, who had admitted that the amount mentioned in tho charge was what he had converted to his own use. Evidence was also given by tho police and included a statement made by tho accused admitting the amount. He was a married man, and lived with his wife and three children at Lower Hutt, and had taken tho money to meet pressing liabilities, which bad accumulated principally on account of family illness.

He had not used the money in gambling, and was a man of temperate habits. Evidence of character was given, and bail was allowed in the sum of £SOO, on condition that the accused reported daily to the police.