RAILWAY DEFALCATIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 42, 12 May 1927, Page 13

RAILWAY DEFALCATIONS

ACCUSED BEFORE COURT TWO PLEAD GUILTY Press Association CHRISTCHURH, To-day. Pleading guilty to the theft from the Railway Department o'f sums totalling £7,763, two ex-servants of the department, Gordon Gavin Watson and John James Neilson, who came before the Supreme Court to-day, were remanded till to-morrow morning for sentence. There are 15 charges against them, including six of having forged signatures on pay-sheets. The trial is proceeding of Michael Lyons, who pleaded not guilty to the theft of £1,103, and to six charges of forgery.

CASE AGAINST LYONS

CHRISTCHURCH To-day. Outlining the case for the prosecution against Lyons, the Crown Prosecutor said that the three men had worked together at thq same desk in the maintenance branch of the department. The men in the maintenance branch, of whom there were 800 or 900, were paid fortnightly on Fridays. The paysheets had columns for the time worked, the amount due to each man and signatures for the receipt of pay. The thefts were committed by putting on the paysheets the names of men who either, perhaps, did not exist, or were not entitled to payment. The offences had been committed, practically, every fortnight for two years. The paysheets were prepared in advance. The time sheets-were signed by a foreman and the pay-sheets later taken to the chief clerk, who signed the cheque for the amount of the wages to be paid. During the whole of the three years the three men were working in the same room, and it was reasonable to suppose that Lyons would be acquainted with the frauds.