TRUST FUNDS STOLEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20893, 8 June 1931, Page 10

TRUST FUNDS STOLEN.

SOLICITOR AND CLERK.

FIVE YEARS' DETENTION.

" CAREER OF DISHONESTY."

JUDGE'S STRONG COMMENT.

[ill' TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] NEW PLYMOUTH, Sunday. In the Supreme Court yesterday, Harold 'John Moule Thomson, solicitor, of Inglewood, and Samuel Robert Darlow, his cleric, who were found guilty on 19 charges of theft of trust moneys, totalling about £BOOO, wore each sentenced to five years' reformative detention by Mr. Justice Reed. Speaking on behalf of Thomson, Mr. L. , M. Moss said the Solicitors' Fidelity Guarantee Fund would contribute between £7OOO and £BOOO to reimburse clients whose funds had been misappropriated. Counsel said practically since Thomson's return from the front, where he was a very efficient officer, ho had found him/self unablo to settle down to the duties and responsibility of professional life. In this connection, his genial disposition and wide popularity had been a hindrance rather than a help to him. The course of life he followed effected a marked deterioration in his physical condition with other attendant results. To that change, rather than to any intentional wrongdoing, must bo ascribed tho position in / y.'hich he was placed. View Not Accepted. On behalf of Darlow, Mr. P. O'Dea said ho took full responsibility for puting the view forward that Darlow had simply been a servant acting under directions. Ho thought tho evidence showed that Darlow got none of tho money. His Honor: I don't accept that for one moment, or that he did not have a part in dipping into these funds. I think he did. As far as I can see, Thomson did know of his position. Mr. O'Dea said Darlow had lived a quiet life. He had been sued for debt and ho had not paid insurance premiums for several years. If he had been dipping into these funds, he would not havo allowed these things to go in that way. All ho did was to help Thomson to make these frauds possible. He was an unqualified man, although quito capable, but as an unqualified man, it would have been very difficult for him had he given up his position at £6 a week to get another position anywhere else at that salary. In sentencing tho prisoners, Mr. Justice Reed said he could not help thinking that j in order to prolong the manipulation of tho funds of their clients, they chose a complacent auditor who was easily gulled or grossly incompetent. With an honest and capable auditor, tho amount of the defalcations would have been considerably reduced, and their career of dishonesty would much sooner have been brought to a close. Hardship to the Poor. "These defalcations are likely to entail great hardship upon many poor and deserving people," continued His Honor. ."Of the large sum involved, estimated by Iho auditor at from £IO,OOO to £12,000, a certain proportion of the defalcations that havo taken place since tho Act came into force, will be made good by your follow practitioners. The balance will fall on the parties concerned. " The legal profession is in the mam honourable, and it is to tho honoui of the members of tho profession that they have voluntarily taken upon themselves tho duty of providing for any loss that may be suffered by the public through unfortunately entrusting their savings to men such as yourselves. " As thero may bo otliors of the profession who are tempted to follow your course'of conduct, :it is my duty to lrnposo such ft sentence as may be a deterrent. lam unable to differentiate in your culpability, nor did tho jury. I gave them tho opportunity of recommen ling either one of you to inoro lenient treatment than the other, but they refrained from doing *o, and I agreo that they weio right in not discriminating between you. "You. Darlow," said His Honor, "made tho excuse that you were acting: under tho instructions of your employer, and I cannot help thinking that you were under tho mistaken impression that you could safely take part in these trans actions and could eventually shelter yourself from criminal responsibility by claiming that you had dono so. As to this moral responsibility of taking part in these dishonest practices, your excuse is that you had a wife and family dependent upon you, and you feared that if you had resigned, you might havo had difficulty in obtaining another situation. Small Salary Drawn. " This appears to mo absurd. You wers drawing a very small salary for a man of your ability. Your work and the prominent position you occupied in tho office and your personality, as shrfwn bv the official positions to which your fellowtownsmen from time to time elected you, I am suro would havo readily secured for you an as good or better financial position than the one you occupied. I am forced to the conclusion that you found tho position you did occupy a very much better financial proposition than is represented by tho bare £6 a week you weio nominally receiving. "That a man of your personality and ability and unhampered by any sense of moral responsibility could take part, in conjunction with a man of drunken habits, in theso manipulations of truiit funds without yourself dipping into tho;;o funds, is a bigger draft upon my credulity than 1 can honour. Whether or not you havo laid aside a nest egg there is no evidence to show, and I muist assuino you have not, but that you confined yourself iii tho circumstances to a bare £6 a week is not in my opinicn within the bounds of human probability. " As to you, Thomson," His Honor continued, " one cannot but feel genuino Fadncss that a man who for years held un honoured name in the profession, ard who worthily played his part in tho Great War, should have come to this. I can only suppose that your moral character lias been sapped by drink. I cannot accept your statement, nor did the jury, that you weio ignorant of what was going on in the office. I feel sa!isfied that you wore fully conversant with tho wholo position."