FRAUD AND THEFT

Grey River Argus, 12 May 1944, Page 5

FRAUD AND THEFT

Civil Servant Convicted AS AN ACCOMPLICE. P.A. CHRISTCHURCH. May IL Angus Cameron MacFarlane, aged 44. formerly.a civil servant in the Ministrv of Suonlv. was found guilty of theft, involving the sum of £327 I'Gs 5d in the Supreme Court to-day. Mr. Justice Northcroft when dismissing the jury, commented: “I thrnk it a perfectly proper verdict gentlemen, and one with which I entirely agree:” MacFarlane was remanded for sentence.

The jury retired at 3.10 P.m. anti returned at 5.30. In his summing up. Mr. Justice Northcroft described the case as an important one. not only for the accused. whose future was at stake, but for the community as a whole, as the public had learned that certain Department officers had been taking advantage of their authority to perpetuate fraud. Though tire in.t'a! thief had been the witness. C. S Sansford. undoubtedly, he continued, the law regarded the accomplice as equally guilty. The Crown had sub-

mitiec. that both men were equally guiltv. that MacFarlane had shared everything with Sansford, and was, in tact, the accomplice of the principal hief Sapsfqrd had come before, the t-ourt, he said, a convicted criminal, a man whose word could not be accepted unless there was corroboration, and it was the duty of the Court to warn the jurors that such evidence must always be treated with caution, unless there was corroboration. However, there was a great deal of evidence, apart from that given to the jury, which suggested that MacFarlane had been implicated in the frauds. Mr. Justice Northcroft., when review’ng the counts at length, indicated portions of evidence by other witnesses which to his mind, corroborated evidence given by Sapsford.