FORMER STATE EMPLOYEE IS FINED £110
(P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. A former employee in the Auckland building controller's office, Stephen Patrick Foster, aged 49, was fined £llO in the Supreme Court before Mr Justice Stanton today. The charec was that he corruptly solicitecl n gift of £lO to facilitate the granting of a building permit. On a charge of having wrongfully accepted the gift, he was convicted and discharged. “These are serious offences, particularly at a time like the present, when controls are numerous and so ' far-reaching and temptations ate «reat to commit such crimes, which are hard to detect,” his Honor said. “It would be calamitous if the public came to accept the view that controls can be by-passed or approval expedited by illegal payments to persons in your position. On the question of penalty, his Honor said it must be substantial. It was not an appropriate case for probation. Taking into consideration the accused’s good record and all the facts, he would impose a fine, but it must be big. He had to considei that the accused suggested the gift. It now said that this was in a joculai way. but-this suggestion lost some of its force when it was followed by the acceptance of money. Defence counsel, Mr Hart, said the controller’s office was generally agreed to be in a chaotic state. He submitted that it was more in the nature of a gratuity than a bribe which the accused received.
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Greymouth Evening Star, 25 August 1948, Page 5
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244FORMER STATE EMPLOYEE IS FINED £110 Greymouth Evening Star, 25 August 1948, Page 5
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