Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

4 articles on this Page

THE CASE AGAINST MRS.

News
Cite
Share

THE CASE AGAINST MRS. MARGARET ROBERTS. Mrs Margaret Frances Roberts, having pleaded guilty to all the charges made against her was, at the conclusion of the case against Mrs Parry, asked by the Clerk of the Court to state whether she had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon her. Mr Trevor Parkins said that the, prisoner had been for a considerable time assistant at the Rhuddlan post office, and was one of the nieces of Mr Evans, the late sub-postmaster During the course of something like ten years a great number of crimes had been committed at the Rhuddlan post office. She had pleaded guilty to two of the indictments. The charges against her included torging notices of with- drawal and warrants, and the frauds had been carried out in a very ingenious manner. In the case of a depositor named Louisa Williams the withdrawals were entered in the depositor's book, and so the book went up to London and was found to correspond with the account at the post office. When the book was returned to Rhuddlan the contents were torn out and fresh contents were inserted in which the with- drawals were not entered. With regard to deposits, the course pursued was this. In the case of Harriet Louisa Williams there wad a bogus book made out in the name of Louie Williams in which certain deposits were made, and when the acknowledgements came from London they were intercepted at the post office and altered so as to correspond with Harriet Louisa Williams' book both with regard to the number, name and address. That was the course pursued by Mrs Roberts in this and in other cases. He had to point out to his Lord- ship that the amount of money appropriated altogether at the Rhuddlan post office was about JE324. No imputation was made against the honesty of the late sub-postmastee He appeared to have placed too much confidence in the prisoner, who seemed to have exercised a terrible infiuenceover the otter prisoner and was indicted with Garner for other offences. She herself bad been removed from her position in the post office in January, 1901, and after she had left she got the documents filled up by other people, sometimes by the prisoner Garner who had yet to be tried. One of the charges against the prisoner was that she bad obtained a savings bank deposit book by false pretences from Miss Gwendoline Garner, the sister of the prisoner Garner, this book being required by her to make certain bogus entries. The amount of the defalcations were extremely large and extended over a considerable time, and had been committed with great deliberation and very considerable ingenuity. Mr Ellis Jones Griffith said he could not hide from himself, and it would be idle to endeavour to conceal from his Lordship that the prisoner had pleaded guilty to very serious and grave offences which had been going on for some time. The indictments to which she had pleaded guilty covered the period of the last three years, and there was no doubt that during the last three years that at her instance and really by her work and under her control very grave irregularities bad been going on in that little sub-post office at Rhuddlan. He need not remind his Lordship of the agony of fear the prisoner was suffering during the last three years of being found out. She had be»!I pressed by him and by those who had instruc- ted him in this matter as to what had become of this considerable sum of money. But she persisted in saying that the money was not spent upon any personal extravagance or in- dulgence in any spend thrif habits of her own. be said that all the money went to the pos office till. The post office accounts would not balance, ard these great frauds had been really committed in order to balance the accounts That was her explanation, and he mentioned it to his Lordship as he was instructed He thought he was right in saying that as far as anyone knew the prisoner had not been guilty of indulging in expensive tastes or anything of that kind She had oaly lived the life she was accustomed to live in that little place She was married to a gentleman who was well con- nected in his sphere of life, and bad three children, one being twelve years of age, one ten, and the other eight. Of course, whatever view his Lordship took, not only would it affect both directly and indirectly the prisoner but also upon her husband and her children There was this much to be said fot her, that the momeut the frauds were found out she put no difficulty in the way, and that day she had pleaded guilty to the serious offences with which she was charged. Prisoner's health, he might mention, was far from satisfactory. She was suffering from an internal complaint which might turn out to be of an aggravated charac- ter- His friend had repeated once or twice the largeness of the sum that had disappeared u from the post office. He had set Mr Evans free in the matter so far as he was personally concerned, but that he bad put too much trust; in the prisoner Roberts. His Lordship would be glad to know that full reparation had been made. and that all the money that had been lost, amounting to 2324, had been made good by Mr Evans. Although he was a poor man he had out of his own pocket paid every penny of the sum that was missing. Of course that did not atone for the very great wrong which the prisoner had done. He merely ment oned it so that it might be known that the post OffiCE as a public depHrtm^-nt and the members of he public bad lost nothing by the frauds. Having regard to these circumstances he ventured c ask his Lordship to take 8.11 lenient a view of the conduct of the prisoner as he considered was consistent with his duty. The Judge asked if it was correct that all the money bad been pud Mr Tievor Purkinn said it was perfecily true. The sub-postmaster's own money bad been taken, and that showed how completely nnccwnt be was of any participation in the rauds. The Judge said he would pass sentence in the morning, and the prisoner, who bad been crying bitterly during the addresses was rt-mov- ed in custody. SENTENCE OX MRS. ROBERTS. On Wednesday morning Mrs. Roberts. came up for sentence. His Lordship said prisoner's case was a very serious one. She had com- mitted a long series of depredations upon the Post Office, under which department she had held a position of considerable trust; and only had she broken the trust, but young women coming under her influence had been exposed to great temptations. The young woman he had just sentenced had been led into crime through her, and he could not do otherwise than pass upon her a very severe sentence. She would have to go into penal servitude for three years. Prisoner, who appeared to receive her sen- tence with comparative composure, was immed- iately taken below. I

THE ARMENIAN MURDER.

Advertising

Sensational Developments.