The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-18 00:00:00

EMBEZZLEMENT :OF £B,OOO.

At the Manchester police court, on Friday, Thomas Fox
Lings wes brought up on remand, charged with embezzling
large sums of money (which now appear to amount, in the
aggregate,. to -Upwards of £8,0e0), the property of his late
emplin era, Messrs Kershavv, Leese, and Sidebottom. Mr.
Ovens appeared for the prosseution, and shortly stated the
case. The prisoner had been in the employment of
Messrs Kershaw, Leese, and Sidebottom for about twenty
years, and for the last twelve cr fourteen had been casbier,
and in the enjoyment of the entire confidence of his em-
ployers. He had to receive andu pay large sums of money;
and the books he kept were a " cash payruent book," a
"icash receipt book," and a "bank ledges." The pealing
of the " baek ledger" having fallen behind, tine junk-di
cashier, Mr. Jahn Shelmerdine, was instructed by Mr.
Sidebottom, in February last, to post it After ding so
up to a certain point, he compared it with the cash receipt
and payment bo. Ice, and the Bank of England pa's book.
He then found that an entry iu the prisoner's handwriting
in the cash payment book, under date 7th February,
and purporting to be a paythent into the Bank of England
of £1,200, had no corresponding entrl in the bank pass
book, Ile pointed that out to the prisoner, who said,
"That is strange ; I must see them ebeat it." Next day
the prienner came to Mr. Shelmerdine, and said he had
been to the Bank Of Eegleeed. and that the sum was all
right. Shelmerdine had sin his gesizi;:i.” about the
matter, and kept his eye upon the books and the priaonee
until the 4th of May inst., when seeing that no entry had
yet been made in the bank pass-book, he again called the
prisonee's attention to the omission. The prisoner readied,
"I shall ,have to dye them credit for it and I will-do it
at once," and own he made an entry in the dash
receipt boil: of .E 1,200 as having been received
from the Bank of England. The date of this entry
was 4'.h May, while that of the payment in the
cash payment book was 7th February. This confirmed
Mr. Shelmerdine's suspicions that all was not right,
and tre days afterwards he told Mr. Sidebottom,
who, after taking a night to consider the matter, on
Thursday morning last called the prisoner into his private
costing house, and asked him very pointedly if there was
nothing wrong with his accounts? He said " "co; there
was not." Mr. Sidebottom then asked for theokeys of the
cash drawer, remarking that he hoped there was nothing
wrong, bet hp feared there was. The keys were then
given to Mr. Sidebottom, viho, on receiving them, said
that be knew there was something wrong, and asked him
" Ho* much are you wrong ?" The prisoner, quivered
and gave no answer; and Mr. Sidebottom then repeated
"How much, Mr. Linge, are you -wrong; £5,000 r He
replied, "It is more," Mr. Sidebottom then called for a
cab, and went with the prisoner to his lime, and took
possession of a number of papers which the prisoner gave
him out of his drawers. Amongst, these papers ware
lO.U.'e from two individuals f r sums amounting in the
aggregate to about £BOOO tha greater part being in the name
of one of these parties. [rho papeas were handed to the
bench for inspection, privately, so that the names might
not transpire.] Mr. Sidebottom and the prisoner then
returned to the warehouse, and, care being taken that the
prisoner was not lost sight of, a telegraph despatch was
sent to London for Mr. Kershaw, who came down that
evening. Mr. Sidebottom saw him next morning, and then,
in the forenoon, they had an interview with the prisoner.
At that interview's' the prisoner made a fall disclosure, went
throueh the books, and. pointed out the false entries he
bad made, and explained the means by which he had
hitherto escaped detection. The follow are the defalca-
tions disclosed .—On 27th December, 1835, the time of
Messrs. Kershaw, Leese, and Sidebottom's half yearly
stock-taking, an entry in tke prisoners handwriting is found
in the cash payment book, and in the bank ledger, purport-
ing that a sum of £2,000 had been paid into the Bank of
England; bat no cerreepouding entry ij found in the Bank
of England pass book, Oa the 31st December, however, a
sum of £2,000 had been paid-into the Bank of England,
and that is entered in the pees book, but no such entry is
found at that date, in either of the other books kept by the
prisoner. The effect of entering the £2,000 in the books
of the firm on 27th Dec., and not paying that sum in'o
the bank till 31st Dee., was this The prisoner got credit
in the half yearly balance of the firm, on the 27th or 28th
Dee , for £2,000 he had embezzled ; and the deficiency
did not appear when the bank balance was struck on
31st Dsc , for £2,000, the proceeds of subsequent receipts,
had been paid into the bank on that day. The balance
time, in Dec, 1855, having been thus got over, the prisoner
bad the June stock-taking to meet. On 18th June a sum
of £3O Os was paid into the Bank of England, in
London, to the credit of Messrs. Kershaw, Leese, and
Sidebottom; end that sum, on the date mentioned, sppears
in the bank pass-book, bank ledger, and cash payment
book. The prisoner, in balancing hitsbooks at that time,
put at the foot of the column in which the above entry
aepears. £2,000 more than the proper total; and after the
items of his cash had been chack.d, and before they were
added, prefixed 20 to the 30. making the sum £2,0f30, so
that the addition of the person checking the book meght
correspond with the fraudulent total which be had pre-
viously put down. In the same way, on the 24th June, a
bona fide entry of .E5OO is made into £2,500. In December,
1836, the next stock-taking time, the prisoner took a
different course. On .the 26th, the last Friday of the
month, he made out a fictitieus list of payments, welch
he said he had to make, amounting to £3,000, and got a
cheque for that amount, on the Manchester and Salford
Bank. That sum he received; it is entered in the bank

ledger, in the p isoner's handwriting, as having been
received from the bank, but no entry appears in the
cash receipt book On the 30 h December another cheque
for £1,200 was obtained in the same way ; the money is
marked in the Bank of England pass book, but no entry of
its having been received appears in the prisoner 's cabh
bDok. That put the prisoner in possession of £4,200 with
which to tide over any deficiencies that might appear at
the December balance. The next item was the £1,200

entered in the prisoner's books alone as paid into the Bank
of England on 7th February last, and the suspicion con-
cerning which led to the fraud being discorprod. Mr.
Maude said be thought the case for tho prosecution would
be most directly made out if the items £3,000 and £1,200,
paid to the prisoner bat not entered by him in his cash
book, were chiefly relied upon. The depositions were
ordered to be taken, with a-view to the prisoner being
aommitted for trial. •

•
CHURCH RATES. —THE OTHER. SIDE—At a full retry
me, ting, of the parish of Mitchell Troy, near Monmouth,
the parishioners present not only unanimously agreed to
the passing of a church-rate, but offered to grant a higher
sum than asked for by the churchwsrdens. This is a fact
worthy of notice in these. days of church-rate contests, but
it should in all fainiess he stated that the parish in
question is of small .dimensions, with an entirely rural
populition, most of whom are teucntry of the Duke of
Beanfort.
CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD THE LEEDS CO-OPERITIVE
FLouaSOC,JITY.—At the Leeds Court House, on Thursday,
Elley and Craford, the two prisoners who already stand
committed for stealing flout from. the Leeds C3-operative
Flour Society, were again placed in the dock. The new
charge was, however, only directed against Elley, the
bookkeeper of the society. Oct tke 6th May, the Rev Mr.
Lora, governor. of the Wesleyan Academy, Woo ihouse
Grove, Apperly Bridge, pa7d the sum of £7 16s. Bd. to
Elley, being the balance of an account he owed for flour.
Elley, gave him the usual receipt. The same gay Mr. Lord
made further purchases of flour to the extent of £l6 184.
for which he also paid in cash. When Elley came to
balance his accounts on Friday morning last with Mr.
Penrose, the treasurer of the society, be only accounted
for £22 of this money, and embezzled the remaining .E 2
,13s. Prisoner did not de,..y ha charge, and was committed
to the sessions on this indictment also.

THZ VOTING FOR ME:ABP.:4S of THE BOARD OF GUARDIANS
--The mode of voting by -nrinted pipes -dired ie the
election of guardians for the poor seems fast falling into
. diSr. pute, from the disg!aeefitt fratiriSeVhie,di the elections
at Leeds and other plea s show can be practised under it,
when there is an object to serve. At the last rneetiee of
the Preston board of guardians, a letter front Mr. Ward tiS
read, the contents of which will -necessitate a rigid enuiry.
Speaking of the Voting. papers in the St. George's ward,
Mr. Ward says: "I find that in a great number of cages,
improper iq erfer'nee. tampering with, acts of forgery, or
acilful parldining• of the voting papers, have taken place.
The persons aepointed to deliver and collect the voting
papers in the St. George'S ward, at the late election, were.
Mr. Anthdny Allen, relieving oflicr.en and t Jhn Snith-
worlh; employed ass:sub assistant in the clerk's office. One
thing shown by the evidence is peculiar. In former years
undue influence in the glee ion of guardians was generally
said to cOeset of canvassing and tilling up the voting
papers during the time they were in the voter's pessession.
This, except in a solitary instance or two, has not, it
appears, been the case at a() late election. Nearly all the
delinqueeci has arisen after the voting pipers were deli-
vered to the person appointed to collect them. It appears
to me, as it will no doubt appear to the board, that the
question is not- merely one as to whether the election of
guardians shall realty be left to two or three unprincipled
characters, and the rat,,payers, of caurse, deprived of the
electoral franchise, but also one requiring a rigid official
enquiry by the Poor Law Board, especially into the cases
of forgery, tampering with, anel purloining• of the voting
papers, so that an example may he made of the guilty
parties, and the legitimate purpose of the election of
.guardians in future secured. In announcing to you the
conclusion of this preliminary enquiry, Imust now le (pest
your aid in desiring that the }'oor Law Board will be
pleased to direct their inspector to institute an enquiry
into the various irregularities connected with the late
election in question for St. George's ward, Preston."