TRUST BETRAYED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22504, 22 August 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRUST BETRAYED

EX-CHIEF OF POLICE HULL CITY SENSATION GAOL FOR SWINDLING HIS MEN i Dazed by the sentence and tho judge's stern condemnation that accompanied ( it, a man who had spent 24 years in , the police force and, in 1931, rose to . the rank of superintendent, had to be assisted from the dock at York Assizes with the words "four years' penal servitudc" ringing in his ears. In this manner the curtain fell on the career of William Joseph Hunter, aged 46, who until ho absented himself from duty was superintendent of the Eastern Division of the Hull City Force. Hunter pleaded guilty to a series of charges of forgery and fraudulent conversion of money connected with tho Hull police sports and holiday funds. The sum involved with regard to the first-named fund was stated to be about £372, and altogether about £7OO had disappeared. Hunter was a vice-presi-dent of the holiday fund, and general treasurer since 1927, and in passing sentence, Mr. Justice Charles told him that he accepted a position of trust and was relied upon by his men. Balance-sheet Forged "But you stole their money and swindled them," the judge went on, "and when you found you had to try to deceive the members at the annual general meeting, you not only forged a balance-sheet, but actually got an innocent man to bo your instrument in forging the document. You say you loved your men. It is a strange way of showing it. 1 have been asked not to send you to penal servitude. I must. It is a bad case." Relating tho story of the former superintendent's downfall, Mr. G. H. B. Ktreatfeild, prosecuting, admitted that it was a painful case. Up to the end of December, 193-1, when chartered accountants audited the accounts of the sports fund, everything, presumably, was in order. On March 4, the date of this year's annual meeting, and at which it was Hunter's duty to bo present, no accounts had been prepared for presentation to tho members. At 9.30 that morning, however, Hunter asked one of his subordinate officers to stencil him some accounts for the meeting. During the afternoon ho took a receipts-and-payments account for the year 1934, and which had been certified," and, with altered figures and schedules in his own handwriting, told his subordinate to type the document out and run off stencils. Hunter also | dictated certain other figures for insertion. Arriving at tho meeting late, Hunter distributed the stencilled copies to tho members. Failed to Report No one suspected anything wrong. Hunter was thanked for his services and granted an honorarium of £lO. This, however, he never received. Instead of £165, the actual balance at the bank on December 31, Mr. Streatfeild stated, was only £23, whereas the Hull City Treasurer estimated that the sum which Hunter should have had in hand was £372. Where the money had gone was a mystery. On March 18 the chief constable ordered Hunter to produce the original balance-sheets of the sports and holiday funds. Hunter replied that he could not do that, as the sergeant, who bad locked them up, was off duty. Hunter was thereupon told to produce thein the following day. Next day Hunter failed to report for duty, and he was not seen again until he was arrested at Selby on April 24. When his desk was searched, apart from some small sums, there was no sign of the £372. Mr. Streatfeild added that Hunter was in a distressed condition, mentally and physically, when arrested. When charged, he replied: "Yes. it is a snowball—robbing Peter to pay Paul. Pleading for leniency. Mr. H. B. Hvlton Foster stated that Hunter's troubles began when he found a small shortage in the holiday fund account. " Became Moral Coward " The deficiency grew, and when Hunter wanted back his own money, which he had used to put things right, the snowball became one beyond his power to deal with. "As a matter of fact." declared Mr. Hylton Foster, "Hunter became a moral coward. He made resolution after resolution to make a clean breast of things, but never acted upon them. ... "The thing preyed on his mind, and toward the end of 1935 he had a severe nervous breakdown. Day after day as he sat in his office he hated to hear the telephone bell ring, fearing it meant discovery. In this way he was driven to forgery." Mr. Hylton Foster added that he wanted to make it perfectly clear that the subordinate officer was in no way implicated by what had happened, nor was anv accusation made against any-

body else. Mr. Hylton Foster further pointed out that, in his younger days, Hunter borrowed from moneylenders, and for 10 years had been paying them back at the rate of £ls a month.