RICH MAN’S CASHIER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 148, 13 September 1927, Page 9

RICH MAN’S CASHIER

QUEER LOVE-MAKING WOMAN CHARGED WITH EMBEZZLEMENT An employer’s story of gifts of rings and fur coats to his woman cashier and of leaving her £5,000 in his will was told at Leeds Assizes during the trial of Mrs. Flora Marwood, aged 33, a cashier, of Hazelhurst Road, Bradford, and Arthur Stanley Rhodes, aged 27. The charge against Marwood was one of embezzlement and against Rhodes of conspiring with Marwood. The jury found both accused not guilty. Mr. Lowenthal. K.C., for the prosecution, said that Marwood had been cashier to Messrs. Heymann and Alexander (Yarns, Bradford), Ltd., and was enabled to cover up persistent frauds during a long period by the help of Rhodes, clerk to a Bradford firm of chartered accountants. Rhodes’s duty was to check the figures of Messrs. Heymann and Alexander’s accounts. Taking advantage of the position she occupied, Marwood, the prosecution alleged, used large sums of money for her own purposes, amounting to something like £5,000. Marriage Proposal

Mr. Edward A. Lassen, a director of Messrs. Heymann and Alexander, said he often signed cheques in blank so that they would be ready. It was a regular practice. He never authorised the signing of cheques for private purposes. Cross-examined by Sir Patrick Hastings, K.C.. he said Marwood had no right to draw money except as cashier and for the purposes of the business. Sir Patrick: After she had been with your firm some little time did you promise her, as there were going to be divorce proceedings between yourself and your wife, that you would marry her? —After our relations began I asked her promptly to marry me if I could get my freedom. Did you start to make her live in a style of life suitable to your future wife, spending thousands of pounds upon her?—Not a bit of it. Did you spend hundreds of pounds on her in jewellery and hundreds in clothes? —Not at that time. When did you begin?—After the boom in 1919. Mr. Lassen said .he paid £45 for one engagement ring and £2OO for another. £6OO Fur Coat With regard to fur coats that he had bought for Mrs. Marwood, he agreed that the skin for one bought from a Russian refugee cost £6OO. Sir Patrick: Did you also tell her that in no circumstances was she ever to be anxious for money, and that she could always have at any time out of your share of the business certainly £ 5,000 ? —No, but I left her £5.000 in my will. ... , Sir Patrfc:k read a letter written b>

Mr. Lassen to Marwood in which licasked for forgiveness. ■ Help me to overcome ray lack of balance; it has run always through my life. You know that yourself. 1 never had any intention of wronging you. It is only lack of that coupled with restlessness of spirit.’’ Sir Patrick: You knew she thought you were devoted to her? —I thought she was sure of it. She was practically in the same position as your wife? —We were engaged. Your money was her money?—No. Sir Patrick: Did you write to her and say that you would never take proceedings?—She had run away then and I wanted to prevent her committing suicide. You had the best years of her life from 1915 to 1927? —1 have known her well, and 1 am not the only mar who has known her well. So far from keeping your promise on being divorced you married so m< body else? —She broke off the engagement. Regarding a cheque* payable to a firm of women’s costumers. Mr. Lassen said that it had been filled m l*y him. Sir Patrick: Have you any doubt that the goods were in a woman’s name? —No. Have you any doubt that the woman was the prisoner?—Yes. Oh! Were they for another woman? —That is my business. (Laughter.) In the witness-box Mrs. Marwood stated that her maiden name was Flora Bairstow. She was married last December and her husband was standing by her in her trouble. She had been cashier to Messrs. Heymann and Alexander (Yarns), Bradford, Ltd., the prosecutors. She was engaged in 1915 as contract clerk by Mr. Edward A. Lassen, the head of the firm. At that :ime her people were away and she was lonely, and Mr. Lassen used to take her out to dinner. An Attractive Man “Mr. Lassen,” she added, “was a very attractive and very popular man. As a result of his attentions and his taking me out I became very fond of him.” Mr. Paley Scott (for the defence): You knew, I suppose, that he was max - ried ?—Yes.

Mr. Lassen told her he was ne t happy with his wife. “He came to see my people,” sh; continued, “and told them he wanted to marry me. My mother told him I was not suitable for the position he had put me in. He said, ‘That is all righ .. I will marry her in a year.’ ”

Mr. Lassen gave her presents and she used to stay with him. For these visits he provided her with a wedding ring. Mr. Scott: Did you really think he was going to marry you?—l did at one time.

The first valuable present was a ring worth £2OO, but she had man)- presents more costly than that. After the divoree proceedings, Mr. Lassen asked his wife to take him back. “She was a long time deciding. He asked me to release him. and I did. It cost me a good deal of suffering, because people were talking about me. They thought I was responsible for his divorce action, and I was not.” Mr. Scott: Did the b-eaking off of your engagement with Mr. Lassen end your relations?—While lie was on his second honeyemoon he wrote me a letter saying he could not forget me and that we would have secrets and store them in our minds. Mrs. Marwood said that her engagement with Mr. Lassen was renewed. Eventually it was broken off again. Mr. Scott: I believe tie was again divorced by his wife?—Yes. Is it true Mr. Lassen did not know you were paying your accounts with t.he firm’s cheques?—ls it not, because he had bought me things himself and told me to pay for them from the firm’s money. Nearly always whes I have been with him I have paid the bills. She said that Rhodes lad no part in any irregularities. He only did she told him. Addressing the jury. Sir Patrick Hastings. K.C., for Mrs Marwood, *-aid, "There is scarcely an unpleasant thing he (Mr. Edward Lassen) could have said about this woman that he did not ♦say. He seemed to he a man who was rather looking contemptuously at the woman whose life he had wrecked. He seemed to be rather enjoying himself. • If she is allowed to go on for years drawing cheques, wh’v should Mr. Lassen, now he has got tired of her, come here and say she has robbed him? This woman was almost in the position of his wife all these years.” The jury returned a verdict as stated.