Easy Money

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 338, 25 April 1928, Page 8

Easy Money

Ingenious but Foolish Crimes Heavy Annual Losses by Fraud Theft TO make money easily—so it is believed—one must have money, exercise brains, or employ more than ordinary cunning in the systematic deception of those who have money. Records show that the methods of extracting easy • money from unsuspecting and trusting people are as foolish as they are varied, however, and the law usually has the final word on the merits of the transactions.

Without discussing the psychology of petty crime it would be difficult to judge the motive of the man who jeopardises his liberty by smashing a slot machine and stealing a few paltry pence and a parcel of cheap chocolate. Much .easier is it to ascribe pure avarice as the influence which persuades the person in trust to exert his talent over a period of years in the methodical robbery of the firm’s funds. He at least has the advantage of pecuniary gain, with a certain period

of liberty in which to enjoy the fruits of his deceit; but the out-of-work butcher who steals a Post Office Savings Bank book and says he found it in the gutter, and the woman who enters a jeweller’s shop and substitutes a paste ring for a stone of genuine brilliance, both operate close to the border-line of personal safety, an I cannot go very far undiscovered. In recent years the crime of embezzlement and failure to account for trust monies has figured prominently in the justice statistics of New Zealand, and, while it is difficult accurately to assess the amount which is lost to the State and to private employers through misappropriation, huge sums are diverted annually into dishonest pockets in this manner. It is not long since defalcations amounting to about £12,000 were discovered in the railway accounts at Christchurch, and several men apprehended for a criminal offence, while history does not take one far back to recall the most sensational savings

bank fraud of this country, in which a young man was proved to have swindled the department of sums aggregating close to £I,OOO. As recently as a week or two ago, at Wellington, the theft of a mail bag containing £1,400 in bank notes was prevented only by the vigilance of investigating detectives, who.discovered the stolen money in the possession of a young clerk in the P. and T. Department. The reports of police activities for the year 1926 reveal that 106 thefts by servants occurred during that period, this number being 11 more than during 1925. False pretences than during 1925. Since the beginning of the current year a great deal of money has been misappropriated by people in positions of trust. Something over £2,000 is involved in the forgeries detected since January 1, while funds which cannot be accounted for by servants reach over £1,600. Salesmen and canvassers have failed to answer for well over £3OO, and thefts from employers aggregate in amount nearly £2,500. Apart from these direct and popular methods of making “easy money,” there are those who introduce originality into their schemes of fraud. Christchurch business houses are suffering at the moment from a spurious issue of banknotes which, if circulated widely, will net the counterfeit printer a tidy sum. A man was recently found to be making a commercial success of an illicit whisky still, from which the out-back thirst was being slaked with much success. A young man who was employed by the woman proprietor of a tobacconist shop and who was to wed his employer’s daughter, forged a cheque for £IOO in her name and relieved her of £2l worth of jewellery and £7B in money. Inexperienced businessmen, who eventually pass through the Bankruptcy Court, frequently participate in “easy money” schemes, and disillusioned creditors throughout the Dominion have seen many thousands of pounds pencilled on the list of hopeless debts during the past few months. A small fruiterer’s book-keeping system comprised a pocket notebook, and a bankrupt bank-manager in a provincial town admitted having spent over £4OO of his £BOB deficit in liquor. Of that £BOB he had borrowed £795. Endeavours are being made at present to sheet home the responsibility for missing goods which have passed through the Customs, while detectives have acknowledged in Court recently that waterfront pillaging is causing some concern. All this is easy money to those who handle the swag. But ultimately, when the law has extracted an eye for an eye, and given the financial losers the doubtful satisfaction of seeing justice done, the money is found to be not only dishonestly obtained, but decidedly hard-earned.