Roberts v R
| Jurisdiction | St Vincent and the Grenadines |
| Judge | Berridge, J.A. |
| Judgment Date | 24 July 1981 |
| Neutral Citation | VC 1981 CA 4 |
| Court | Court of Appeal (Saint Vincent) |
| Date | 24 July 1981 |
| Docket Number | Criminal Appeal No. 5 of 1981 |
Court of Appeal
Peterkin, C.J.; Berridge, J.A.; Robotham, J.A. (Ag.)
Criminal Appeal No. 5 of 1981
C. Dougan for the appellant and O. Dennie with him.
Miss M. Joseph for the Crown.
Criminal law - Appeal against Conviction — Larceny
The appellant was convicted on the 19th March, 1981, of the larceny of $21,766.34 the property of the Government of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and was on the 20th March, 1981, sentenced to 6 months imprisonment with hard labour.
She now appeals against her conviction and sentence on the grounds set out at pages 2 and 3 of the record ground 2 of which has been abandoned.
In addition, leave was granted to her counsel to add two further grounds which were submitted to the court in writing.
The facts and circumstances in this matter are as follows:
The appellant was employed as a cashier in the General Post Office. Her duties included the selling of stamps, postal orders and money orders and the cashing of postal orders and money orders. She was given an authorised imprest of $5,000.00 with which to operate along with a stock of stamps and postal orders.
As cashier she was allotted two compartments in a locked vault and the keys for these compartments were kept by her, the duplicates being kept by the Accountant General.
She commenced the duties of cashier on the 4th July, 1979 on which date a check was made by a Board of Survey and everything found to be in order.
For some inexplicable reason no further check of her books, stock or cash was carried out until after the Postmaster General gave certain instructions to Charles Harry, the Counter Supervisor, on the 5th February, 1980.
On the 7th February, 1980, the appellant was asked by Harry to hand over some of her cash. She did not do so but instead stated that she had some foreign money and was going to get it changed. She left and returned later and handed to Harry a cheque for $15,000.00 saying that it was from the Gas Station. She showed him the cheque, posted it in her till, locked it and left saying she was going to get some more change from people for whom she was collecting foreign currency.
Harry next saw the appellant on the 9th February, 1980 when she came into the office saying that she was proceeding on sick leave and left. He next saw her on the 14th February, 1980.
In the meantime, on the 13th February, 1980, acting on instructions from the Postmaster General and using the duplicate key, a check was carried out of the appellant's stock and cash. This check revealed that in addition to the amount of $15,000.00 represented by the cheque she was further short of $6,766.34 making a grand total of $21,766.34.
The appellant returned on the following day and said that she had heard that he was saying that she was short and so she wanted to find out what was the difference.
She was told of the amount by Harry whereupon she enquired of him if he would require cash instead of the cheque. He answered in the affirmative and returned the cheque to her. She left, returning shortly after with $15,000.00 in cash, and on Monday, 18th February, 1980, her father came to the Post Office and paid over to the Postmaster General the sum of $6,766,34 in cash being the balance of the deficiency.
The source of the cheque for $15,000.00 was an Esso Dealer, one Stanley Abbott who gave evidence on behalf of the Crown.
Abbott's evidence reads in part:
“On 8/2/80 accused came to me and said she was in some difficulties balancing her cash. If in any way I can help. I told her it would be very hard on me. I issued a cheque to her about $15 to $20 thousand dollars. She gave me an idea of the amount she said was short. I checked and found I didn't have money to cover the cheque and asked her to please return the cheque. She returned it, and I destroyed it. The cheque was made out to the Accountant General. I met her and told her cheque couldn't be processed. She returned the cheque to me about 4 or 5 days later.”
Abbott having destroyed the cheque there is no evidence to indicate from what source the appellant obtained the $15,000.00 in cash to hand over to Harry at such short notice.
On the 19th February, 1980, the appellant made the following statement to the Police:
“From 1978 I am working at the General Post Office. I start as a clerk closing mails then I transferred to the cash counter. I sold and cash Postal Orders and Money Orders and sell stamps. In July 1979 there was a Board of Survey at the General Post Office who found everything to be in order, since then no one checked my stamps, Postal Orders, Money Orders and Cash. Sometimes the Supervisor Charles Harry come around and ask to see how much cash I have. On Thursday 7th February, 1980 Charles asked me to give back some of the cash, I had some foreign monies, so I went to get them change in the Bank, I returned to the Post Office late, I did not balance my cash book but I told Mr. Harry I will do that on the Friday morning, but I did not go to work as I was not feeling well, I went to a doctor on Saturday 9/2/80 and got sick leave forms. On that same day I asked a postman to get leave forms for me. I received the leave forms from my father with a message from the Post Master that I must send the keys when I am sending the forms. On Monday 11/2/80 I send the leave forms without the keys and the bearer said the Post Master said he is not accepting them without the keys. So he returned them to me. I did not send the keys as nobody should have the keys while I am responsible for the stock. On Thursday 14th February 1980 I went to the Post Office and Mr. Harry told me not to do anything until the Post Master sees me. I saw the Post Master and he told me to hand over the cash to Mr. Harry. I did so and I left. Mr. Harry gave me a...
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