FORGERY BY WOMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20930, 21 July 1931, Page 12

FORGERY BY WOMAN.

LAW CLERK'S OFFENCES.

A PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT.

COURT GRANTS PROBATION,

On two charges of forging audit certificates and statutory declarations, Waiata Hum Ferrall, aged 28, a bookkeeper formerly in the employ of Enllon and Mason, solicitors, appeared for sentence before Mr. Justice Smith in the Supreme Court yesterday. Mr. Richmond, for prisoner, said the acts had not been prompted by any desire for personal gain but bv perhaps a too keen personal loyalty to her employer and too great; a desire to serve his wishes. In the offences she had committed there was nothing mean or ungenerous. She needed nothing for herself and had taken nothing for herself. She was a girl of tho best character in her social lifo; she- had lived simply and had ample to live upon. This was a peculiar psychological problem, said Mr. Richmond. The prisoner had' been accustomed from childhood to look up to her employer, Mr. Fallon, as in the place of a parent. Her father died about 15 years ago, and Mr. Fallon became trustee of the estate and family adviser. Mr. Fallon later became trustee also of her mother's estate. From the age of 18 the girl had been in his office and had looked up to him with an intense loyalty, and yielded her judgment com* , pletely to him. She was completely dominated by him. "A Tragic Tangle." s

Counsel said that to begin with there were minor irregularities, and then prisoner embarked upon a series of gular entries until she lia.d involved heiself in a tragic tangle out of which she could see no way of escape. Mr. Fallon was a man with substantial expectations and both he and she expected that money would be forthcoming to put right temporary irregularities. Partly by the depression and partly by other circumstances the coming of that money had been delayed. The prisoner became absolutely desperate. Those who knew her regarded her not as a worldy-wise woman but as a girl having the intense loyalty so characteristic of her mother's race. Counsel said he did not suggest that her rash act was in any way suggested by her employer. Even in her present position she had attempted to shield behind no one and had taken all the blame upon herself. She sought to clear her employer in every way. For two years the prisoner had suffered great misery, and counsel asked that she be treated with the utmost leniency.

Comment by His Honor. His Honor expressed the opinion that the explanation of the prisoner's action was to be found in motives which could only be understood by regarding the case from the psychological point of view. If any European law clerk who had been eight years in an office deliberately forged a statutory declaration of a member of the New Zealand Society of Accountants and forged an audit certificate and sent them to the Crown Law Office it would not be possible for His Honor to consider probation. The offence would be much too serious. However, as had been pointed out, the prisoner's employer was to her in the position of parent, and she had acted according to his instructions. When he asked for money she gave it to him and recked not of the consequences. His Honor thought that certain characteristics of the Maori race had influenced her, and that she had/ shown a loyalty and a desirß to please which was definitely a characteristic of the Maori race. He found it difficult to believe that she had an .entirely independent courage in evil doing, and he thought she was greatly influenced by the position in which she found herself. In the circumstances she would be admitted to probation for two years upon the usual terms, and the fnrther condition that she should "pay the costs of the prosecution, £2 Is.