COMPENSATION SOUGHT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26842, 5 August 1948, Page 5

COMPENSATION SOUGHT

RESERVE BANK CLERK EXPENSES OF SUPREME COURT DEFENCE P.A. WELLINGTON, Aug. 4. Stating that he had used all his savings and had borrowed money to meet tiie expenses of his defence, a clerk on the staff of the Reserve Bank, Peter Edward Millett, aged 25, who, on November 7, 1947, was found not guilty on six charges of forgery and one of the theft of £IO,OOO, to-day petitioned the House of Representatives for compensation. The petition, which was presented by Mr W. Nash (Govt., Hutt), asked members to hear the evidence concerning all the circumstances leading to Millett’s arrest and imprisonment and the alleged non-disclosure by the police during his trial of certain fingerprints in their possession. He set out that on July 24, 1947, he was questioned by a detective and another police official about the forgery of certain documents which purported to transfer Government stock to the value of £ 10,000 from the holder to one John Low. He was later arrested and charged with the offence. , , Millett said that towards the end of the case for the prosecution during the trial his counsel ascertained during the cross-examination of a police official that there were,inside an envelope produced in evidence by the Crown certain fingerprints, and that these fingerprints were not those of either the petitioner or of any bank official who had handled the document in the course of his duties. The presence of these fingerprints was a material factor for consideration in assisting to determine who was responsible for the perpetration of the fraud and attempted fraud and also in removing the suspicion that had led to Millett s arrest. He asked for payment of a sum of money in satisfaction of all expenses to which he had been put for his defence and such further compensation as might be just.