THEFT FROM OFFICERS’ MESS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 6 December 1940, Page 7

THEFT FROM OFFICERS’ MESS

’ PRISON TERM FOR STEWARD PAPAKURA CAMP INCIDENT ) [United Press Association] , AUCKLAND, sth December. : A discovery that the officers’ mess; i at Papakura Military Camp had been ; broken into on the night of 23rd; ■ November had a sequel in the Magis- , trates’ Court when Joseph Walter George Coleman, soldier and steward, aged 38, was charged with stealing about £2B, the property of Thomas Patrick Laffey and others. DetectiveSergeant Walsh prosecuted. and Mr Noble, who appeared for accused, entered a plea of not guilty. George Allen, steward at the officers’ mess, said that on Saturday night 1 there was about £lO in tobacco money and £lB in liquor money in the bar at the mess. The door was locked when 1 the bar closed at 9.15 p.m. Accused j was a dining-room waiter at the mess and his duties did not include the bar. Other witnesses said that on the- following morning it was found that the doors of the bar and of the locker containing the cash-box had been forced open and the money taken. A handkerchief was found on the floor bearing a number corresponding with that marked on another handkerchief belonging to accused. The movements of accused from the camp to Papakura and then by taxi to Auckland were traced and evidence was given that he booked in at a city hotel early on Sunday morning. During the morning he gave the reception- ; ist £ 10 in notes and silver to look after for him. He also left £3 with the receptionist at another hotel. Results of the examination of fingerprints on a glass dish from which money had been stolen at the camp were detailed by Sergeant Francis, who said the prints of accused’s fingers 1 were the only clear ones. In his opinion this indicated accused had last handled the dish. In a statement made to a detective accused denied the theft from the camp saying he had obtained £lO from a girl on the Sunday morning to pay a debt. The detective added that accused made no mention of the £3 which he had deposited in a different hotel. “Accused’s whole story is patently 1 without the slightest foundation,” said Mr Morling, S.M. “Before he received £3 10s in wages on Saturday accused had no money. He takes a taxi to ; Auckland and pays for a room with i small coins such as would naturally , come from a bar. Accused says later J that he had obtained the money from a ! woman.” Accused was sentenced to three j months’ imprisonment and an order was made that the recovered money | should be returned to the officers’ mess, j