MUST ENCOURAGE CRIME

NZ Truth, Issue 1179, 5 July 1928, Page 9

MUST ENCOURAGE CRIME

Favored Postal Thief Hidden By Curtain of Suppression

. (Prom "N.Z. Truth' 3" Special Dunedin Representative.) The Post and Telegraph Department exists under a voluminous code of rules and regulations.

MANY are needless and . irksome, tending to decrease efficiency rather than promote it, yet the door is being left open m some directions to fraudulent practice. It is only by the infliction of a penalty sufficiently severe, to aqt as a deterrent that the department can suppress any attempt at crime by those of its officers who betray their positions of trust. A recent ■ decision of Magistrate H. W. Bundle, m the Dunedin Police Court, "will m no way assist the departmental officers m their efforts to cope with those wayward members of the service, even though they be a very small minority. It is not so very long ago that public confidence m the service was shaken by the disconcerting frequency of charges, against dishonest officers. '; When the offenders, however, are permitted to shelter behind the cloak of anonymity, through the farcical and much-abused system of name suppression, it not only cultivates an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion among the public, but it must also tend to encourage dishonesty m the service. In the case under review, a young postal officer, barely 18 years, of age, was charged, on two counts with stealing- 30 shillings, the property of the Postmaster-General, and with fraudulently fixing upon a postal packet a one-shilling, stamp which had already been used. Chief -detective D. Cameron's outline of the facts disclosed, a clever scheme adopted by the accused^ to defraud the department.' During two periods of the day, the accused, a smartly-dressed youth who appeared, to have wanted for nothing, relieved at the parcels counter m the Dunedin post office. His method of theft was to. affix used stamps to parcels he-received from the public for transmission and to pocket the equivalent m money. . But i what was the ' motive for the dishonesty? No- heartrending tale, ; this, 'of hungry and iil-clad children or parents to be provided for. I This young thief was merely a raem- -.. / '

ber of the hip -flask brigade and stole the money to buy, whisky, so that he could hold his place m a gang of local sheiks. Their hobby it was to get m a merry mood each Saturday afternoon and air night to evade the ' doorkeeper of a weekly dance club with the flasks , m their possession. The accused met his friends through his piano-playing ability and was threatened with expulsion from their circle if he did hot appear weekly, packing a flask of the potent spirit. , In cases where people are driv-fi. to spasmodic theft through desperation, the court is sometimes inclined to take a lenient view, but the provisions of probation and the suppression of names were never intended to apply to those engaged m premeditated and systematic theft. ' Publicity has long been regarded as a deterrent to crime — tb earn the reprobation of one's fellows is a greater penalty than a long term of probation. The accused has lost his position and Lawyer J. P. Ward, m the course of an 'eloquent appeal, stated that his father would take him back home to Central Otago and teach him a trade if the court felt disposed to take a lenient view of the case. ■ Counsel also suggested that m view of accused's age, the court -might treat him as a juvenile. Hearken unto Magistrate Bundle: "I do not propose to deal with a.gcused ' as a juvenile, considering the nature of the charge, for it is a serious thing ■] when a young man m a position of trust does not. carry- out his duties." ' The accused was convicted and admitted to probation* for two years' on ' the charge of theft. A conviction was entered 021 the other charge. .- J Restitution was ordered and the ac- : cused was prohibited from drinking. By his decision, Magistrate Bundle ' has cast the shadow of suspicion on the members of the Dunedin post .and ' telegraph staff, while the leniency, extended to this young fraud must tend to cultivate, rather than check, dis- ! honesty m such branches of the civil service where permanent supervision ' is a practical 'impossibility. ''