SECRETARY CONFESSES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20083, 1 November 1939, Page 8

SECRETARY CONFESSES

UNION MONEY TAKEN FUNDS SHORT BY £B2 TOLD POLICE OF THEFT Walking into the police station recently, a union secretary, Vincent Anthony Hogan, aged 26, confessed to the theft of sums of money from the funds of the Gisborne Freezing Workers’ Union. This morning he appeared before Messrs. M. Doyle and E Harris, J.P.s, in the Police Court and was committed to the Supreme Court on Tuesday for sentence. The accused pleaded guilty to a charge of the theft of £B2 5s 2d, the property of the union, on October 1, 193'8, and divers dates between that date and October 21, 1939. The prosecution was conducted by Detective-Sergeant R. H. Waterson, and Mr. J. de V. W. Blathwayt represented the accused. John Gartshore Robertson, the treasurer of the Freezing Workers Union, said the accused had been secretary for the past two years and had been paid a salary of £2 a week. Hogan had been paid up to the end of August and was not entitled to take his salary from the money he received. There were 374 members in

the union. The subscription was £l, with a 5s entrance fee for new members. A levy of Is per member had been struck this year and the payments were collected by delegates and given to the secretary, who in turn was to hand them on to the treasurer for banking within a week, in accordance with the rules of the union. Check Up of Receipts A check had been made of the accused’s receipts and the witness said the present position was that the secretary had received £414 18s Bd, of which £B2 5s 2d remained unaccounted for. Cross-examined by Mr. Blathwayt. the witness said the accused had always borne‘an excellent character, | and had carried out his union work with satisfaction. Had it not been for these proceedings, the accused would have had good prospects with the national union. Detective-Sergeant R. H. Waterson said that on October 25 the accused called at the police station and told him that he wished to confess that he had been stealing the funds of the union. An explanation was given by Hogan to the effect that he had been forced to give up his work as a slaughterman on account of illness. Other troubles had caused him to keep payments made to him instead of giving them to the treasurer for banking. To Mr. Blathwayt, the witness said the accused had given the police every assistance. An application for bail was refused.