A FAULTY MEMORY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19845, 20 May 1927, Page 7

A FAULTY MEMORY

PETTY OFFICER’S MISTAKE DISRATED BY NAVAL COURTMARTIAL. [Per Press Association.] AUCKLAND, May 19. A naval court-martial was held on board H.M.S. Philomel to-day. Chief Petty Officer Writer H. C. Wiskar was charged with (1) converting to his use a sum of £5O entrusted to him last June for the purpose of being remitted to London on account of a seaman on H.M.S. Veronica, and (2) having committeed a breach of naval discipline in receiving money for transmission, he not being an officer authorised to act in that capacity. Accused pleaded not guilty to the first charge and guilty under extenuating circumstances to the second. The defence did not deny receipt of the money, but submitted that, being distracted by personal troubles, accused locked the £5O away in a drawer and forgot all about it, entirely through mental aberration. It was also stated for the defence that in the middle of July last the ship’s office was broken into and ransacked, and that it was not until accused was preparing for a transfer to H.M.S. Diomede that he remembered and opened the drawer in which he had placed the money, finding it had disappeared. His error and his omission to inform the Paymaster of the loss of the notes of which the sum consisted was, it was contended, entirely due to forgetfulness. The Court acquitted accused on the first charge but the second charge was found to be proved, and accused was adjudged to be disrated from Chief Petty Officer Wx-iter to Petty Officer Writer.