CLERK'S DEFALCATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23659, 18 May 1940, Page 13

CLERK'S DEFALCATIONS

£6OOO FROM EMPLOYERS [fbom our owx correspondent] LONDON. April 25 A clerk, Desmond Lee, now aged 38, cot a job as office boy in a City office beside his father 20 years ago. After iv while he took 10s from the office cash. Because that theft was not noticed ho did not bother to pay the monov back. yesterdav, at the Old Bailey, lie was sentenced to four years' penal.servitude after admitting that he bad robbed his employers of £6OOO over a number of years. During those years, Lee* n £o-a-week book-keeper, had been living at the rate of £3O to £4O a week. He owned a £3OO motor-yacht, which he kept on the Thames, lie was a "grand fellow" on the racecourse. He was known to bookmakers as a heavy plunger. Leo was on holiday at. tlic outbreak of war, when his firm ordered a special audit. His father was asked to go through his books. The result; was that lie was recalled from holiday. He admitted his thefts. His wife and child had been evacuated to Pulborough, Sussex, and when lie wjjs arrested, in spite of the thousands of pounds he had frittered away, lie could not ask for bail because ho had nowhere to live. From the 10s theft of liis office-boy days ho went on to fill in cheques, cash them, and cover the defalcations by arranging the books. He bought bis yacht with one of bis firm's cheques. The yacht was said to be now worth £IOO, and was his only asset.