TRIED TO COVER THEFTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 689, 14 June 1929, Page 10

TRIED TO COVER THEFTS

OFFICER’S DESPERATE EFFORTS Press Association WELLINGTON, Thursday; A postal officer’s desperate but unsuccessful efforts to repair the damage caused by his theft of £BO, received on behalf of the State Advances Department, was described by his counsel in the Supreme Court at Wellington today, when Oliver William Joseph Wright appeared for sentence on a charge of theft as a servant at Wanganui. Counsel said Wright had lent money to a friend, who failed to return it. In desperation, Wright resigned from tho money order savings bank in the hope that this superannuation money would be available to make good the loss. A hitch occurred, and Wright came to "Wellington, and raised nearly £IOO on his life insurance policy, in' tending to return to Wanganui clear up the muddle. Just as he was stepping into a service car, a detective arrested him. Counsel urged that leniency be extended, as there was no falsification or destruction of documents. Mr. Justice MacGregor said that prisoner must have known that what he did was wrong and criminal. Probation was quite out of the question, as prisoner had set a very bad example to other officers of the department. A sentence «*f three months’ imprisonment wa.s imposed.