THEFTS from RAILWAYS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 43, 13 May 1927, Page 1

THEFTS from RAILWAYS

FOUR YEARS’ GAOL POSITI°TRUST betrayed Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. In the Supreme Court on eight counts of theft from the Railway Department and seven counts of forgery ct Departmental pay-sheets, John •' m e 3 Neilson and Gavin Gordon Watson, ex servants of the maintenjnce branch, were each sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on each charge, to which they had pleaded guilty, the sentences to be concurrent. -From 1922 till the beginning of j 927," said his Honour Mr. Justice fdains, “these two men, by a concerted and somewhat ingenious fraud, succeeded in obtaining upwards of £6.000 in cash, while in a position of trust. “The court cannot listen to a suggestion that the more a man is trusted the more he is entitled to steal, for that is what it amounts to. When a man is put in a position of trust his employers trust him, and in such case it is impossible to devise means of checking him. This is one of the most serious cases that has come before the court for a long time in this particular line. There are no circumstances which call for leniency. The money stolen was spent in gambling, betting and riotous living.”

The third man, Michael Lyons, charged yesterday with thefts totalling £1,147, was acquitted, his Honour stating that it would be dangerous to convict him on the evidence submitted as to the handwriting on the payaheets. The jury could not, in the circumstances, return any other verdict.