FAILURE TO ACCOUNT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 12

FAILURE TO ACCOUNT.

SALESMAN’S LAPSE. DEFICIENCY IN CASH. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, December 22. Charged with having failed to account to the Nestle and Anglo Swiss Condensed Milk Company for money totalling £llß Os lid, William Mawson Chammen, a salesman, aged 42, appeared before Messrs I. Salek and J. A. M'Grath, justices of the peace, in the Magistrate’s Court today. James Ross, chief clerk of the company', said the accused had been employed as a van salesman. He disappeared on Tuesday, December 14, and the next day witness made a careful check of the stock in the van. There were a number of empty cartons and “dummies,” _ and the van appeared to have more stock in it than was actually there. On the evening of •December 18 the accused came to the office and handed him a sum of money, which, he said, represented his takings for* December 13. Witness sealed this money in an envelope and gave it to a detective. He then handed the accused over to the police. Mrs Robina Phillips, confectioner, Newtown, stated that she bought goods to the value of £4 Os 8d from the accused. He gave her a receipt for the money. Frank Wynon Vickerman, manager of the local branch f the Nestle Company, said the accused had been employed by him for about four years at a salary of £5 a week. His duties were to sell goods to customers for cash and to account for the money each morning. He was also authorised to receive money on the same conditio' i. On December 13 Mr Ross made a check of the contents of the van and found that here was stock to the value of only £BO ?a lOd in it, when there should have been £lB5 15s 2d worth —a deficiency of £lO5 12s 4d. Chammen was later arrested for having failed to account for the £4 Os 8d received from Mrs Phillips and for other sums amounting to £l2 8s Id, bringing the total defalcations to £llß Os lid. Detective Murray read a statement by the accused in which he admitted taking the money which he should have handed in to the firm. He said he had spent a lot of it on drink, and that once he had commenced misappropriating he had got deeper and deeper into the mire. Chammen, who pleaded guilty, was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.