CHARGE DISMISSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 584, 9 February 1929, Page 13

CHARGE DISMISSED

GIRL COMPANIONS EVIDENCE • MORE LIKE ACCOMPLICE” Press Association PALMERSTON N., To-day. •‘This* is more like the evidence of an accomplice than anything else. In a civil action,-I -would not accept the cirl’s statement as evidence of repayment,” said Mr. J. L. Stout, S.M., in dismissing a charge of theft against jimes l.eslie. of Woodville, after evidence had been heard. Accused -was charged with receiving £2 10s under conditions requiring him to account for same to Yates’s Cash Store, but failed to do so, thereby committing theft. The case -was partially heard yesterday and adjourned to enable evidence of a former girl clerk at Yates’s Woodville store to be given. Accused contended that he had paid in a cheque to the iirm’s account for tea, which he at first purchased from the firm’s money. Realising he had no right to do this ho acquired the tea on his own behalf. Doris May Gawith, a former clerk, stated that Leslie had paid in a cheque. The cash dockets were not kept, witness destroying them. Under cross-examination Gawith admitted staying with the accused at hotels as jnan and wife; also receiving presents from him. Accused got the benefit of the doubt, the magistrate dismissing the charge, adding that the evidence did not justify a conviciton. There was grave suspicion that the dockets had been destroyed by the pair. Who were not only working together, but living together.