ALLEGATIONS OF THEFT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18922, 25 January 1936, Page 5

ALLEGATIONS OF THEFT

OVER £2300 INVOLVED BROKER SENT FOR TRIAL. (Per Prflss Association.) DUNEDIN, this day. In the City Police Court yesterday Leslie David Woolf, aged 40 years, an insurance broker, was committed to the Supreme Court for trial on four charges of theft from the Australian Alliance Assurance Company involving the total sum of £2378 16s. The accused was arrested on warrant on private information on "January 8. On the morning of January 13, the accused said to Detective Sergeant Hall: "I want to give you all the assistance I can. I assure you that there is no 'nest egg' anywhere." Detective Sergeant Hall showed the accused an auditor's report and read out the amounts allegedly overdrawn in 32 months referred to in' the report. The accused made no reply. He was also shown a list of agents' outstanding balances, in connection with which it was alleged that figures beside an entry "L. D. Woolf" had been faked. Again he made no reply. Keith Russell Reed, a bank officer employed by the Commercial Bank at Dunedin, produced 11 cheques totalling £407 18s 6d drawn by the accused from the bank. The cheques were drawn by L. D. Wolf and Company and also by L. D. Wolf Insurance, Limited, and signed by L. F. Woolf. The witness also produced 17 cheques totalling £697 U 9d, 14 cheques totalling £4OB 10s and 76 cheques totalling £2056 15s lOd. covering a neriod from September 1932 onwords. These cheques had been sipucd by the accused as agent for the Australian Alliance Assurance Company. • Woolf reserved his defence and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. He was allowed bail in personal recognisance of £SOO and two securities of £6OO and was ordered to report daily to the police.