CROWN SEEKS TO REDUCE DAMAGES

Grey River Argus, 27 September 1949, Page 8

CROWN SEEKS TO REDUCE DAMAGES

WELLINGTON, September 26. The Government Audit Department, ordered last month to pay £8164 Us 8d for negligence in not uncovering earlier defalcations by a cashier of the New. Plymouth Borough Council, has applied for a hearing to state a case for reduction of the amount. Mr Justice Stanton, whose judgment ordered the payment, reserved his decision after legal argument in the Wellington Supreme Court yesterday, as to whether a hearing will be granted. The Crown asked for the judgment relating to damage*' to be reconsidered as it was thought the amount awarded did not carry out the Judge’s expressed intention. More than £17,000 was misappropriated from September, 1946, to May, 1948, by Bruce Norman Guilford, cashier to the New Plymouth Council. Mr Justice Stanton ruled that the Audit Department should have discovered Guilford’s fraud by March 31, 1948. Losses accruing since that date, which he assessed at £8270 11s Sd. less a sum paid in restitution, were the liability of the Department. For the Crown, the Solicitor-Gen-eral, Mr H. E. Evans, K.C., who appeared with Mr N. H. Irvine, contended that the amount awarded on this basis included losses which accrued before the date fixed. Mr P. B. Cooke, K.C., for the Council, said that the Crown’s application refuted certificates issued by the Department which limited the losses up to March 31, last year, to £9481. Mr W. P. Shorland appeared with Mr Cooke.