THREE BANK CLERKS

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 July 1932, Page 8

THREE BANK CLERKS

CONVICTED OF STEALING £5099. SYDNEY, July 21. At the Quarter Sessions yesterday, before Judge Edwards, Stuart Charles McLean, 41, Horace John Finn, 49, and Frank Phibbs, 42, were convicted of stealing £5099 while employed as clerks to the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. McLean and Finn were each sentenced to four years’ penal servitude and Phibbs to two years’ penal servitude. The jury made a recommendation for mercy in the case of Phibbs, and asked that in each' case the previous good character of the accused should be taken into consideration.

The jury added the following rider:—“We regret that the bank system afforded an opportunity for defalcations to be carried out for such a long period.”

Answering his Honor, Mr. Broad, an inspector of the bank, said that the tellers’ books were balanced each day. No check that he could imagine would find anything that had not been entered.

His Honor: Would not there be a check between the head office and the branches? Mr. Broad: Yes, once a week. His Honor: It does seem a. pity that it went on for a period of fifteen months. His Honor asked Mr. Broad whether, if a depositor paid in a £lO note, and the teller chose to tear up the deposit slip, the matter could be checked? '

Mr. Broad: Not in the case of a £lO note, but a cheque could be traced. His Honor: I think it comes to this —that no human being has yet been able to devise a scheme which some fraudulent person cannot beat. After all, the solution seems to be to get honest men on the job .... It does seem to the credit of the men that thev owned up.

His Honor said that, in sentencing the prisoners, he had the public to consider.