UNION FUNDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 211, 6 August 1937, Page 8

UNION FUNDS.

CHARGES OF THEFT. Pleading guilty to two charges of theft, involving, in all, the sum of £34 Is 6d, the property of the Wellington Timber Yards and Sawinillers’ Industrial Union of Workers, Francis Murray Boggs, aged 27, a labourer, was convicted in the Magistrate’s Court to-day by Mr J. h. Stout, S.M., and ordered to come up for sentence within 12 months it called upon, a condition being that he had to take out a prohibition order and make restitution at the rate of 15s a week. Detective-Sergeant Meiklejohn, who prosecuted, said accused had been employed at a local timber mill and had been appointed bv the union as local collector of dues. This lie carried out efficiently for some time, forwarding the money to AVellington at the appointed intervals; then, towards the end of 1936, the payments were not made regularly. The union secretary had called on accused and he had admitted that he had spent the money, promising to pay it back at the rate of 15s a week. Only one payment was made and accused was put off from the mill. He was on sustenance and now was working under scheme 13, having since paid a further £l. Boggs was a married man, continued Mr Meiklejohn, and had two children. He blamed drinking and betting for his lapse. Appearing for accused, Mr L. G. H. Sinclair said the circumstances as stated were correct. Accused admitted lie hn:l been drinking heavily, and when he got into difficulties for a small amount lie tried gambling to make up the deficiency, which, as usual, proved fatal. Boggs, added counsel, had never been in trouble before. The temptation of keeping large sums of money in the house had been too great for him when he got into bad company, lie was prepared to make restitution and take out a prohibition order, if' given a chance. In entering the conviction, the Magistrate said that lie hoped accused would appreciate the leniency of the Court.