DEFAULTNIG CLERKS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 691, 17 November 1933, Page 5

DEFAULTNIG CLERKS

(Press Assn.—

DECAMP TO AUSTRALIA WITH DEPARTMENTAL FUNDS

THE GAMBLING LURE

-By Telegraph — Copyrlght).

Auckland, Thursday Terence Moncrief Nixon (22), and Cyril Robert Hankins (25), were today committed for sentence o.n charges of stealing Government funds. Nixon admitted that while a clerk in the Labour Department he sfole £795 on December 29, and Hankins admitted stealing £765-. iC. S. Mnnn, clerk in the Labow Department, said that before he went on Christmas leave Nixon suggested that he should leave two or three cheques signed in case anyone shoiild come in wanting small payments. He left two cheques signed. Later he found that one had been cashed fqr £30 and the other for £765. In hftth eases the writing in the body of thq cheque was Nixon's. The butts shqwed that the £30 cheque was drawn for £3 and the £765 cheque for 4s 6d. Th© writing on the butts was alsq Nixon's. Both names on the hntts were' fictitious. Nixon was receiving a salary of under £2 5.s weekly. Detective Hamilton said that he arrested both accused in Sydney qn November 3 on warrants, and they were extradited. In a statement Nixon said he p.ut the £30 on a horse named Fisher at the Auckland trots. The horse lost. He then draw a cheque for £765, and with Hankins cashed it at a bahk, giving Hankins £500t ?Wdth three minutes to spare they caught the Monowai for Sydney, and went on tq North Queensland in a car which they bought for £40. Subsequently Nixon bought a shar© in a tourist business for £500, paying £400 cash. Th'e business "was dissolved. They returned tq Sydney and were penniless •and had to pawn their clothes. When arrested Nixon added that he was heavily involved in racing debts, and alleged that he was partly influenced by Hankins in stealing the money. Hankins, in evidence said he had not met Nixon until the day of th'e theft, and until then had no intenttion of g'oing to Australia. He had nothing to do with the theft of the £30. The Magistrate refused to alloyr bail.