POSTAL THEFTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 304, 23 November 1937, Page 8

POSTAL THEFTS.

EX-OFFICIAL IMPRISONED Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Nov. 22. “Thefts by officers of the postal department, who are necessarily entrusted by the public with the handling of large sums of money, are always serious offences,” said Mr Justice Fair when sentencing in the Supreme Court Leonard Arthur Hetherington, aged 45, on two charges of theft as a servant. Hetherington had been postmaster at Waihopo, a far north settlement on the gumfields north of Houhora, and had admitted the theft of £2lB from the Government between January, 1934, and last October.' Mr Holmdcn, who appeared for Hetherington, said during the Great War he had been badly shell shocked at Mossines and afterwards severly wounded in the arm. People in the district were entirely sympathetic, The Crown Prosecutor, Mr Meredith, said these frauds had been going on for a very considerable period and Hctherington’s method of manipulation of the accounts escaped the audit for a number of years. His Honour said accused must be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. His age and experience made it quite certain that he must have realised the gravity of the offences he was committing, yet he deliberately continued them for over a period of about four years while he was in receipt of a salary and pension which wero sufficient for his needs. , Making allowances for the serious injuries Hetherington received in the war, his Honour sentenced him to 18 months’ imprisonment.

3.15 P.M. EDITION.