GIFT OR THEFT?

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17409, 6 November 1930, Page 9

GIFT OR THEFT?

DEAD MAN’S SAVINGS JURY UNABLE TO AGREE

fP«r Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night.. Arrested in the act of opening a banking account with a portion of tho money.from the sale of a number of Wellington City Council • debentures, j Victor Alfred Smith told defectives that the bonds had been given him by an old man shortly before his death. Whether this was so or whether, as tho police alleged, the do-; bcnt-ur.es were stolen, was-the question the .jury was asked to decide iij : the Supreme Court to-day. ; The jury failed to come to an agree- j meat and a new trial was ordered.• j Smith pleaded hot. guilty to tho theft of 1.1 debentures, ouch valued at £IOO, with interest coupons attached, the whole being valued at £11122, tho property of the executors of tho estate of the late Martin Burn. I For the Crown, it, was contended • that Burn, who was a bachelor, was ,n very frugal and temperate man, cure-1 fill and saving almost, to the extent of; meanness, and that it was inconceivable that lie would part with debcn-J turns which represented his life’s sav-j ings. t i' : A statement .wa# read ill Which the accused said that a fortnight or three j weeks prior to his death the deceased ' had handed him a scaled envelope and | implied that, it was a gift for services : rendered. A few days after tho death < of Burn, tho accused received from his solicitors an opinion that the gift was ' a valid ono and that he had a good title against the representative of tho estate. I