LETTERS STOLEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23838, 13 December 1940, Page 4

LETTERS STOLEN

MAIL SORTER CHARGED ABOUT £3O INVOLVED ONE MONTH'S IMPRISONMENT A mail sorter in the Auckland. Chief Post Ollice, liert Tattley, married, aged .'!] (Air. iioldst ine I. pleaded guilty in the Police Court yesterday to three charges el stealing letters, one of which ••nutained ;i postal note lor I )ei' et i\e-Sergta lit "Walsh said accused stole letters consistently over a period. Main were letters addressed to a large city concern which failed to receive letters which had been posted and contained £ll2. including £B9 in cheques and postal notes, and £23 in hank notes and stamps. Detective-Sergeant P. Kearney produced a signed statement, in which accused said he entered the post office in 1927, He had no idea how many letters he had taken and opened either on the premises or outside. He burned letters which contained cheques and postal notes, and kept those containing hank notes. He admitted stealing about £3O, and oflercd to make restitution. "No one else in the mail room was concerned in the thefts with me,' accused stated, adding that most of the money was spent on beer. Mr. Goldstine said accused nominally received £320 a year. With superannuation and taxes deducted he averaged about £5 a week. He had made considerable payments for medical and hospital treatment for his wife, and during this time was faced with paying £l7 income tax arrears. He made an offer to pay £1 a month, but it was refused, and £1 a Week was deducted from his wages. "This shows there was some explanation for an apparently unaccountable lapse in a man never previously suspected of dishonesty," counsel added "He voluntarily refunded £3O from the sum of £l5O which had accrued in his superannuation fund, and also paid the balance of the income tax that was owing." The magistrate, Mr. J. Morling, said it. was a sad case for accused's family, hot that should not hold him back in doing his duty in protecting the public and the department. The public placed great- reliance in the post and telegraph service, and when money wont astray owing to the dishonesty of an officer the whole of the public's confidence in the department was shaken. Accused was sentenced to a month's imprisonment.