FOUND GUILTY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 August 1924, Page 3

FOUND GUILTY.

CASE OF CYRIL L. WILSON. Cyril Louis Wilson was found guilty at the Supreme Court, New Plymouth, yesterday of the theft of £l9O from Wilson’s Motor Supplies Ltd., and not guilty of the theft of tlie sum of £2O. He will be brought before the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) on Saturday for sentence. Did Wilson, as managing director of the company, have a right to take the £2O and make it a charge against the company, and was the transaction with regard to the promissory note an honest one? These were the questions which the Judge put to the jury in the course of his summing up. Concerning the £2O, His Honor said that, while the jury might think the way in which he took the money was wrong, that would not be sufficient grounds for the conviction if they believed that the other directors of the company would have agreed to the charge. He added that at the time the money was taken Wilson must have known that the company was in turbulent waters and that it was on the eve, of bankruptcy. The major charge was that in which the £l9O was concerned, His Honor continued. Wilson had wanted the money to pay a debt due by him to MoGarry. If he had gone to the other directors and had asked for a further advance his salary or until the settlement of other accounts was made, they might have, agreed to do so. He could have gone to the books and ascertained how his account stood, but even if lie had been credited with the amounts' which he said were due to him, there was not then a credit of £l9O. When he discounted the promissory note a quarter’s salary was due to him in a few days, but. the money had not been paid into his account. Wilson ’s account was never in credit, even at the end of the next quarter when £520 due to him as the balance of his vendor interest and a half-year’s salary had been credited to him, His Honor said. Wilson’s actions with regard to the promissory note were recounted by the Judge. An entry had been made in Sir Walter Carncross’ account debiting him with the amount of the promissory note, but no such entry should have been made, as Sir Walter had given his cheque for the promissory note. The entry had remained undisturbed for eighteen months. It was quite clear that Foss knew nothing of the transaction or he Avould have corrected the entry. It was nothing to him. Wilson, as managing director of the company, had control of its finances and must have known the entry was there; yet nothing was said about, it until it was discovered by the liquidator. If the transaction had been honest the books would have shown it to be so. There was not a tittle of evidence that what Foss had said was wrong, and the best proof that what he had said was right was the books. The jury retired at mid-day and returned at 2.15 p.m. with the verdict as stated.—News.