NEW PLYMOUTH THEFTS OF BOROUGH FUNDS

Grey River Argus, 4 September 1948, Page 4

NEW PLYMOUTH THEFTS OF BOROUGH FUNDS

Young -Cashier Is Acquitted on Nine Counts P.A. NEW PLYMOUTH, Sept. 3. Not guilty on all of the nine counts, was the verdict returned tonight ,after the trial of Ralph Eric* Pickering, aged 21 years, former Assistant Cashier, who had been charged in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth, with the theft, of £1,579 19s lid, while a servant of the New Plymouth Borough Council. The jury retired at 6.30 p.m. and returned at 8 p.m. Mr Justice Hutchison remanded Pickering for sentence on the counts to which he had earlier pleaaed guilty. These are eight counts of forgery, by altering duplicate bank lodgment slips, and eight of offering them to the Borough Treasurer, by causing him to act upon them as if genuine. All of the charges were related to the period from December 24, 1947, to January 15, 1949, while Pickering was Relieving Cashier in the Borough Treasurer’s office, during the absence, on holiday, of Bruch Norman Guilford. Guilford awaits sentence, after pleading guilty to the theft of over £16,000 of the Borough funds.