LOOSE AUDIT SYSTEM

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 23 August 1935, Page 8

LOOSE AUDIT SYSTEM

NO EXCUSE FOR THEFT, SAYS JUDGE. “The fact that a man works in an establishment where there is a loose system of audit is no excuse for theft,” remarked Mr Justice Blair m the Supreme Court in Wellington on Thursday when counsel for a prisoner appearing for sentence on a charge or theft as a servant remarked that there was a loose system of internal audit in the firm.

His Honour said that did not excuse the offence; rather it aggravated the seriousness of the matter. Men who were in positions of trust should not have to be under the scrutiny of auditors. The logical conclusion of tho argument often advanced by counsel for prisoners that there was a loose system of audit was that all firms should regard employees as possible thieves, and keep them under the scrutiny of auditors. There was no systefn of audit that could not be beaten, and the fact that a man overcame a system of audit, however loose it was i was not an excuse for him. He knew of scores of men who were trusted with money but were not subject to audit. The argument that a loose system of audit mitigated a theft led to the conclusion that unless a man was watched by a competent auditor he could steal, which was ridiculous. There was no evidence that in this case the audit was loose.