HIDDEN CRIMINAL RECORD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1938, Page 7

HIDDEN CRIMINAL RECORD

OF TRUSTED EMPLOYEE. DIRECTOR RECEIVES “SHOCK OF LIFE.” A director of a fashionable firm of Sydney men’s outfitters received the “shock of his life” when, after the company’s trusted accountant and secretary had been found guilty at the quarter sessions of embezzlement and forgery, the court was informed that the prisoner had a list of convictions under a number of aliases from 1911, with sentences aggregating nearly 10 years.

Horace Sydney Jolly, aged 58, was the convicted man. He had been charged with three counts of embezzlement from Richard Hunt and Co. Pty., Ltd., and one of forgery. The case against him was that he misappropriated the proceeds of cheques for £49 8s 3d, £7 4s 6d, and £33 16s, sent to the firm to discharge accounts for which Jolly issued receipts without taking carbon copies for the company’s records. On the forgery charge it was alleged that Jolly procured the signature of George Bertinshaw, a director of the company, to a cheque for £8 9s to pay certain accounts and by fraudulently altering the handwriting on the face of the cheque altered the amount to £BO 9s, applying the difference to his own purposes. The jury took six hours to reach its verdict. Jolly having then been found guilty, the gaol recorder read out his list of convictions. Jolly was convicted in Melbourne, Fremantle, Perth, Wagga, Adelaide, and Sydney for false pretences, stealing, embezzlement, and forgery. Mr George Bertinshaw, in an interview, said that Jolly was chosen as accountant and secretary to his firm from a list of applicants with high qualifications in accountancy. He held the position from July, 1937, to February, 1938. Jolly presented credentials from a Melbourne firm, and he was also interviewed by a leading Sydney firm of accountants, who recommended his engagement. “He had such an engaging personality,” added Mr Bertinshaw, “that we had no hesitation in appointing him to a very responsible position, and it was with amazement that I heard his list of convictions.”