PUBLIC WORKS OFFICIAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 82, 29 November 1912, Page 5

PUBLIC WORKS OFFICIAL.

ALLEGED BIG DEFALCATIONS. At the Magistrate’s Court to-day, before Mr. Kenrick, S.M., Percy William Copeman Wilson was charged that, on May 24th, he did forgo a voucher in favour of J. Mclntosh, by altering same from one day at 15s to 21 days at 15s, and from. 15s to 15 guineas, and did utter it to the New Zealand Government, with the intention that it be acted upon as genuine. Detective Boddam applied for an adjournment for a week. Accused was, he said, until recently, in the emp oy of the Civil Service, Public Works Department, Stratford, where lie was in charge of an imprest account. Since the accused was in Court last on the present charge, the account, of winch accused was the head, had been audited, and defalcations amounting to between £9OO and £IOOO had been discovered. Witnesses would have to be summoned from all parts of the Dominion, and, under the existing circumstances, he would ask for a substantial bail. It was probable he would have to ask for a still further reimv d. In a similar case in Wanganui, bau cad been refused altogether. The conditions, however, on that occasion were rather different from the present one.

Mr. Robert Spence, who appeared for the accused, stated that no reason, had been suggested "why the bail should be increased. It was not so much the amount of the bail that was important, as the people who would go bail. It was not so much the amount of the bail; it was a question of the character of the person charged, and the possibility of bis answering the charges or otherwise. Fixing huge bail unnecessarily alarmed the public, and was unfair to the accused, in that it migh t prejudice his case when he came before a- jury. There was no raeson why the bail should lie increased.

The remand was granted, and the b-'il was increased to two sureties of £IOO each, and accused in £IOO.