MONEY FOR CLOTHES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 938, 3 April 1930, Page 1

MONEY FOR CLOTHES

CIVIL SERVANT ADMITS MISAPPROPRIATIONS SAVINGS BANK FUNDS Admitting the theft of £l4 in the course of his duties as a post office clerk at St. Heliers Bay. Wilburn James Ralph Voitrekovsky appeared at the Police Court this morning and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. In a statement to the police, accused explained that he had stolen the money to buy clothes. His salary was £96 a year. Voitrekovsky, aged 20, was charged on three counts of stealing money while employed in the postal service, £5 on August 3, £5 on September 2, and £4 on October 18. Francis Patrick Cleary, postmaster at St. Heliers, said accused had been employed in the office from May, 1926, to November, 1929. His duties had consisted of attending ,to the Post Office Savings Bank counter and general office work. There had been no record in his balance sheet of August 3 of a deposit of £5, but the amount had been entered in Mrs. Little's passbook and initialled by accused. Similarly, in the amounts deposited by Mrs. Gilbert and Mrs. Partridge. There had been no records of the amounts being received in the office, but they were both entered in the respective pass-books. Accused had admitted receiving £5 from Mrs. Little and converting it to l;is own use, according to DetectiveSergeant Bickerdike, who had interviewed him at his room, 46 Bellvue Road, Auckland, on March 20. Accused had made a statement and informed witness of other offences. Mary Elizabeth Partridge. Anette Little and Ellen Gilbert, all married women, stated they had paid in amounts to accused in the St. Heliers Bay Post Office—Mrs. Partridge £4 on October IS; Mrs. Little, £5 on August 3; Mrs. Gilbert, £5 on September 2. In each instance the depositor's pass-book had been stamped and initialled by accused. After the plea of guilty had been entered, bail was allowed in one surety of £25.