Theft Of Big Sum Admitted By Bank Manager

Chronicle (Levin), 7 October 1949, Page 7

Theft Of Big Sum Admitted By Bank Manager

DUNEDIN, Oct. 6. Pleading guilty to three charges ot theft involving £7600, Alfred Thomar aged 53, formerly manager of the Dunedin Savings Bank, appeared be fore-Mr J.-D. Willis, S.M., in tln Magistrate's Court this morning and was committed to the Supreme Couri for sentence. . Stewart Francis Mclnnes, public ac countant, said that a comprehensive audit of the bank aceounts last Aug ust showed that the bank's accounts had been manipulated by a system offalse eredits. Eighteen individual ac counts had been used for the posting of f alSe eredits. Only bank fund;were used' and no individual deposito. was affect'ed financially. The sum oi £1900 had been paid baek into tln bank's funds and the banlc's loss now stood at £5700. ' Lengthy evidence was given by WiJ iiam George Hilliker, present manag er of the bank, • who was accountani at the time .of the thefts. Hilliker described the methods employed in preparing the annual aceounts and saul that Thomas insisted on taking out the final figures himself. Hilliker said that in' J'une, 1947-, ' his suspicions were aroused regarding the poaitiom of eredits by Thomas. He earried out an investigation while Thomas was away and found that he had been falsifying the linal figures of the aceounts. Thomas was the only person in a posi tion to create a false balance in the proof sheets of the aceounts and then make a false reeord on the ledge. card. When Thomas returned to the bank on June 18, 1947, Hilliker told iiim he knew the accounts had been falsified. Thomas replied "all over" and broke do^vn. Hilliker described subsequent mvestigations which diselosed further defalcations. In a statement produced in Court. Thomas said that in 1936 or 1937 he as'sisted a great friend finaneially aua owing to a series of misfortunes this man was unable to repay him, in fact he died. The estate showed a big defieiency and Thomas lost all the money he had advanced. "I felt duty bound to assist the widow and her children, and this I did to a considerable degree, " said Thomas." " Aly desire to uelp this family and others in a similar piight placed me in a position greater than my personal funds would allow. 1 knew the bank was making a grtai .deal of profit aud 1 felt that its funds could be used for assistance in sueli cases as previously mentioned. In 1937 I conimenced taking bank funds -and used this money, together with my own, to assist what I eonsidered genuine cases. I coiitinued to taice various sums each vear until 1947. I personally have not gained anything as 'all the money involved was used by me in assisting cases which L eonsidered genuine and deserving. With the advent of the war it virtualh became an obession with me to help servicemen, and my . public activities ^rGvn^d^ne with^many c.ppoHumties of lendmg a helping hand. 1 otten dul not have the heart to turn deserviag cases away and personally lixed them for the amounts required. "