DISHONEST ACCOUNTANT

Evening Star, Issue 21711, 4 May 1934, Page 12

DISHONEST ACCOUNTANT

A BRILLIANT CAREER ENDEC ONCE HAD £40,000 SENTENCE OF REFORMATIVE DETENTION (Pb» ' Unhid Peisi Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, May 4. In the Supreme Court, Leslie Cecil Johnson, aged fifty-three, formerly an accountant and organiser of the Gold Band taxis, was sentenced to two years' reformative detention on four charges of the theft of moneys belonging to the proprietor. Counsel for prisoner said he was educated at Newington College, Sydney, and had had a brilliant commercial career. At one time he was chief accountant in Australia for the Phoenix Assurance Company. Later he founded the well-known accountancy firm of Johnson, Johnson, and Edwards. When he retired he was worth £40,000. This he lost in business enterprises, including failure of the first taxi firm in Sydney. Later he got into trouble in Wellington, but was afterwards prominent on the West Coast and in Christchurch. His salary with the Gold Bands was inadequate, and he yielded to the temptation provided by the loose business methods of the office. Mr Justice Johnston said the case gave him great difficulty. Because of prisoner’s education and qualifications his ability made him a menace to the public unless he were honest. If he sent Siim for reformative detention the matter of his sentence could be reconsidered at a later date.