PUBLIC SERVANT’S LAPSE

Otago Witness, Issue 3520, 30 August 1921, Page 43

PUBLIC SERVANT’S LAPSE

EXTRAORDINARY MOTIVE FOR THEFT. CHRISTCHURCH, August 26. Patrick John Butler, a young man 20 years of age, who pleaded guilty to stealing £2033 4s lid from the Christchurch office of the State Coal Department, was sentenced to two years’ reformative treatment in the Borstal Reformative Institution at Invercargill by Mr Justice Herdman. Mr J. Bresson (accused’s counsel) said the offence was committed with an extraordinary motive. Prisoner was brought up in the country, and when he left school at the age of 16 years his father (unwisely, but with the best intentions) urged him to find employment in town, and he entered the Christchurch office of the State Coal Department. He stayed there for four years, and all that time tie ( was eating his heart out to get back to j the country. He asked his father to Jet him go back, but his father thought it was wiser that he should stay in Christchurch, lie had no vices, and neither drank not gambled. As a junior lie was placed m charge of the receiving machine in the I office. It tccorded the half-yearly totals | along a line on top of the machine. He saw the auditor turn the recorder back to zero. The machine was supposed to be rogue-proof, and could not be turned back to a smaller sum, but it could be turned back to zero. The temptation then assailed him. lie thought " Now is my chance to get back into the country. ’ lie took a large sum, but the extraordinary part of it was that he spent not a single 1 penny. He paid the whole amount into j the Post. Office Savings Bank, and it had j all been returned. Accused s only motive j was to get back to the country. He received : a salary of only £l2O a year, and £60,000 j a year passed through his hands. He | had been trusted, and ho fed, and, having , entered upon a downward course, it, was j impossible for him to pay any of the money back without the inevitable discovery. The Grown representative said that he report of the Glider-secretary of Mines bore out what Mr Gresson had said in regard to prisoner's previous character. Mr Justice Ilcrdman said he would consider what the head of tlie department had said, but the offence was a very grave one, and prisoner could not be admitted to probation. Frauds in the public service were becoming too frequent, and the only way of stopping them was to punish the offenders when the crimes were exposed. Butler was sentenced to two years’ re- I formative treatment. !