THEFT OF TAXI FUNDS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 4 May 1934, Page 7

THEFT OF TAXI FUNDS

LAPSE BV AN ACCOUNTANT NOTABLE CAREER IN BUSINESS RETIRE:]) WITH £40,000. DETENTION FOR, TWO YEARS, 'rfv Telegraph—AssoUii'i'J’ ~ CHRISTCHURCH, May 4. In the Supreme Court, Leslie Cecil Johnson, aged 53, a former accountant and organiser for Gold Band Taxis, was sentenced to two years’ reformative detention on four charges.of the theft of moneys belonging to the proprietor of the company. Counsel for the prisoner said his client was educated at Newington College, Sydney, and had a. brilliant commercial career. At one time lie was the chief accountant in Australia for the Phoenix Assurance Company. Later he founded the well-known accountancy limit of Johnson, Johnson and Edwards. When lie retired lie was worth £40,000. This he lost in business enterprises, including the failure of the first taxis firm at Sydney. Later lie got into trouble in Wellington, but afterwards was prominent on the West Coast and in Christchurch. His salary with the Gold Band Taxis was inadequate and lie yielded to the temptation provided by the loose business methods of the office. Mr. Justice Johnston said the case gave great difficulty because the prisoner’s education and qualifications and his ability made him a menace to the public unless he were honest. If lie sent him for reformative detention the matter of his sentence could he reconsidered at a later date.