STOLE POSTAL NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 709, 8 July 1929, Page 11

STOLE POSTAL NOTES

TWO YEARS’ PROBATION FOR MESSENGER SUSPICION ON OTHER BOY On a charge of stealing a letter containing postal notes for 5s and 2s, Thomas Reginald Warner Moore was admitted to probation for two years, following his conviction at the Police Court this morning. - DETECTIVE HAMMOND agreed that the charge be reduced to theft,, as the charge of stealing a postal packet while a postal official was indictable. The chief-detective said that It was one of accused’s duties to carry letters from the dead letter office to another part of the building. He had somehow discovered that one letter iiad contained the two postal notes, and he had taken it. One postal note, signed with the name of another messenger, had been cashed at the post office, but it had been immediately noticed that the signature was not genuine. IVhat had happened to the other postal note it was impossible to say. Moore had been dismissed from the service. Mr. Smyth explained that the youth was only 18. He had seen the postal notes through the letter not being properly gummed down. He had cashed only one note, and had burnt the other. Counsel suggested that the frank confession made by accused should mitigate his punishment. “It is difficult to detect the offender in a postal inquiry unless a full confession is made,” he said. The magistrate referred to the seriousness of Moore using the name of j one of his fellow-messengers.