UNAUDITED TRUST ACCOUNT

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 44, 16 November 1926, Page 3

UNAUDITED TRUST ACCOUNT

SOLICITOR, FINED. Dominion Special. Dunedin, November la. John Munro Gillies, a Dunedin solici to:-, was fined JJGO to-day in the Magistrate’s Court, before Mr. IT. W. Bundle, S.M., for failing to have his trust account audited within the spceielied time It was stated that Gillies had been ailing for some time, and that bis business generally was in a very unsatisfactory position. Tbo complaint was made by James McCurdy Tudhope, who contended that Gillies, being a solicitor at practice in Dunedin during the year ended March 31, failed to have his trust account audited by a qualified accountant within three months after the end of the year. Mr. F. B. Adams, who npeiircd tor complainant, pointed out that trust accounts should bo audited within three months of March 31 of each year, and as a prosecution was never made until one month after that period had elapsed Gillies had really had four months’ grace. The most serious fact under review by the Court was an apparent deficiency of .C 570 in defendant’s accounts The Law Society had reported that cheques issued had not been written in since March, 1925. and Gillies's books had not been kept since then He had no system of recording receipts and the blocks of receipt books had not been kept. Mr White said that defendant had been in practice for onlv two years, and had been in ill-health most of (he time. Most of the muddle was due to his lack of knowledge of bookkeeping. The Magistrate said that, in view of defendant’s financial position, the penalty would bo fixed at £6O. with costs.