ALLEGED THEFT OF MONIES.

Shannon News, 20 April 1923, Page 2

ALLEGED THEFT OF MONIES.

CHARGES AGAINST TRAINING FARM MANAGER.

THE DEFENCE RESERVED

Six charges of theft involving - the sum of £SB 11s 2d were preferred against the former manager of the Boys’ Training Farm at Weraroa, Frederick Marryat, in the Magistrate’s Court this morning. The charges were that on the dates stated accused stole the following amounts which he had in his. possession as an officer of the Government: March 15, 1920, £8 3s 2d; November 10, 1922, £5 8s; February 21, 1921, £2 Os 6d; January 5,1923, £2 Is 4d; November 5, J. 921, £24 8s 2d; October 30, 1922, £l6 10s.

Chief Detective Kemp prosecuted and the accused was represented by Mr W. E. Leicester.

The circumstances as outlined by Chief Detective Kemp were that accused had been manager of the Boys’ Training Famn at Weraroa, Levin, for some years past at a salary of £515, less £6O per annum for board. Six informations were laid under section 247 of the Crimes Act, 1908, charging him with theft, as an. officer of the Government, the total amount involved being £SB 11s 2d and this represented principally the pocket money of inmates ol‘ the institution. In respect to four of the charges evidence would be called to prove that accused paid cheques received from farmers for the balance of wages due to boys who had been licensed out, into his own private hanking account. He made no record of the receipt of the money in any books of the Boys’ Training Farm as required by the regulations. With reference to the charge concerning £2 Is 4d salary due to a farm hand named Symons, that witness would state that accused was in the liahit of getting him to sign the salary abstract for Ihe full amount of wages due, but would pay only £1 or £2. Symons had signed the abstract on or about January 5 last for the sum.of £6 Is 4d, but up to the present time he had received only £4. In December, 1922, accused

had received from the Treasury and cashed at the bank the salary cheque which included the full amount of Symons’s wages. The sum of £24 8s 2d, which formed the basis of another theft charge represented, continued the Chief Detective the pocket money for 13 boys transferred from the Nelson Farm which had been handed to accused in November, 1921, and was never heard of again until January last when the accused was questioned about it by Mr Barrow, of . the Education Department. “When first interrogated,’’ said Mr Kemp, “accused: stated that about £4 was all the pocket money he held as manager. As a matter of fact Ihe had received the whole money with which he was now charged before he was interviewed hv that officer, but made no mention to the officer. These mon-

ies were only traced after the Controller and Auditor-General lhad obtained the statement.” The evidence; in the first case was to the effect that Hubert Hilton Walker, an inmate of the Farm had in November, 1919, collided with a motor cycle which sustained damage to the extent of £l6 Os 6d. The money for repairs was withdrawn from Walker’s account and forwarded to accused who paid amount in to his own private banking account, together with a cheque for £8 3s 2d, which he had received from the boy on June 6, 1920. Some three months later he paid the 'engineer £l6 0s 6d for repairs, but there was no. record of his having paid the £8 3s 2d received from Walker into the latter’s earning account as previously instructed by the Department. Accused pleaded not guilty, reserved his defence and was committed to the Supreme Court for trial. Lionel John Richards, the first witness in the next case, said he had been licensed from the Training Farm to Mr Tack Gibbs, farmer, of Mangatera, qn November 6 last. Witness-returned, to the-farm, but never received a cheque for £5 8s which he knew 1 Gibbs had

forwarded to Marryatx as balance of his (witness’s) wages. Jack Gibbs said he had dispensed with the services of the previous witness on November 6, on which date he sent a cheque to accused, making it payable to Richards. James Robert Millune, assistant officer in charge of the special schools branch of the Education Department, said that it was the-manager's duty to enter in the standard value book and the boys’ pocket money cards the amounts received by him on their behalf. On no account had he any authority to pay the money to the credit of his own account. Thomas McCristie, auditor, in the employ of the Audit Department, said there was no record of the cheque having been dealt with in the standard values book.

C. 11. Pike, manager of Hie Bank of New Zealand, Levin, produced a certified copy of accused’s private banking account, which showed that a cheque for £5 Bs, drawn on the Bank of New Zealand, Dannevirke, in favour of ono Richards, had been paid in in November 10, 1922.

According to Detective Nuttall, accused, when questioned as to his reason for paying the money into his private account, replied: “Where is Richards now ” Witness advised him that ha (accused) knew where the boy was. The accused made no further reply.

Marryatt pleaded not guilty and reserved his defence and was sent forward for trial.

At this stage the Court adjourned for lunch.