SUPREME CURT.-Criminal Sittings.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 284, 7 December 1870, Page 2

SUPREME CURT.-Criminal Sittings.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7. [Before His Honor Sir Geo. Arney, Chief Jus ice and Common Juries.]

His Honoe took his seat on the Bench at 10 o'cloi-k.

Embezzlement. — George Johnston was arraigned upon an indictment charging him with embezzling the following sums of money, the property of his employers J. W. "Vance and Co. :—ln January last he obtained from aMr Costello £52 10s. 7n., of which he retained £23 Bs. Id. on the Bth January. On the 3rd of the same month he received £41 Bs. from a Mr. Good, of which the prisoner retained £31 Bs. On the 27th of the same month he received from a Mr. ( Bro\^ni_ig; £16 195., the wliole of which, according to the prosecutor, he appropriated to his own use. He then decamped, and went to Nelson, whore ho was found in the employment of a soapboiler.— The prosecutor, Mr. Vance, deposed to the above defalcations. The prisoner's remuneration was to ba 5 per cent, upon the net price of goods sold — that is , to. say, less duty. The witness was cross - examined by , the prison at great length> with a view to show first, that the prisoner was not employed :by the prosecutor ; and.second, that the remuneration was to have been equal to that given to a traveller in the prosecutor's service, viz., £5 a week, and all expenses paid. But he did not succeed in shaking the testimony of the prosecutor, who said the prisoner took commissions from other parties, and that the arrangement was . that"the prisoner was to receive 5 per cent; The prisoner said the duty being deducted, the remuneration would not "in some cases amount to 14 per cent. — John Costello, a publican at, the Thames, deposed to paying the prisoner £52 10s. 7d., for goods.—John Browii, afid a witness named Good, also deposed to paying the prisoner sums ofimoney for, Vance and Co.—His Honor having summed .up the evidence, the jury found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to two years imprisonment with hard labour.