POLICE SERGEANT SENT TO GAOL '

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1934, Page 14

POLICE SERGEANT SENT TO GAOL '

Committed Thefts In Duties As Court Official “SOCIAL ACTIVITIES” AT CROYDON SENTENCE of nine months’ imprisonment was passed on Sta-tion-Sergeant Frank Brown Jarrett, 45, chief warrant officer of Croydon Borough Police Court, when he appeared on remand in that court charged with stealing three sums, totalling £33 5/10, received by him from persons summoned for nonpayment of rates. Mr Percy Holt, for Jarrett, pleaded guilty. - • ■ Mr Vincent Evans, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the Borough Accountant of Croydon discovered defalcations in connection with money received by Jarrett on the execution of warrants for rates. Jarrett was taken before Superintendent Smith, and agreed that his accounts were wrong, but he said he hoped to get them straight again. He added: “I have kept a record of the amounts I have received and not paid in. It has been going on for ‘about two and a-half years. “I am in it alone. None of the men with whom I have been working have the slightest knowledge of what I have been doing.” Mr Evans said Jarrett handed to Divisional Detective-Inspector Hawkridge 91 warrants relating to his misappropriations of about £lOOO. - Jarrett was originally in the Royal Garrison Artillery, and joined the Metropolitan Police in 1919. Nine years ago he became chief warrant officer, and every half-year handled over 1000 warrants issued respecting unpaid rates. It was his duty to hand in daily the money he received, but he had retained amounts and hidden his tracks by marking warrants "withdrawn” or “no effects.” Superintendent Helby, of Scotland Yard, said Jarrett had a wife and two boys, each of whom had won scholarships at school. The superintendent said that Jarrett, having become chief warrant officer, apparently developed into a cunning and dangerous thief. He had badly let down the officer who had recommended him for promotion, because he obtained the post in preference to several others. "He has: been betting, and, I understand, owes a bookmaker money, and has been running about in a motorcar on which he owes £BO. He belongs to a certain society, and was very conspicuous there on ladies’ nights.”