Jersey Unreported Judgments

 

2000/50

4 pages

ROYAL COURT

(Samedi Division)

 

21^st March, 2000

 

Before:  R.D. Harman, Esq., Q.C., Commissioner,

and Jurats Myles and Allo

 

 

The Attorney General

 

-v-

 

Ian Sutherland

 

 

5 counts of: larceny (counts 1-5);

 

1 count of: falsification of accounts (count 6).

 

Age:   57.

 

Plea:   Guilty.

 

Details of Offence:

 

Sutherland was Chief Librarian of the States of Jersey.  When his home was searched by the police they found over 700 library books which Sutherland had retained for periods of up to 7 years.  He had also ordered 279 books which he had paid for using library funds and which had been delivered to him but were missing.  He admitted the theft of 1,004 books with a value of £10,512.68 on the basis that under Jersey Law it is not necessary for the prosecution of prove an intention permanently to deprive (count 1).  On the same basis he admitted the theft of a video camera found at his property and a number of other books (counts 2-5).  Sutherland pleaded guilty to one count of false accounting: he had manipulated the petty cash system at the library to obtain over £800 by creating a double claim in respect of expenses for which staff had already been reimbursed.  There was, however, no evidence that Sutherland had used the money thus generated for himself (count 6).

 

Details of Mitigation:

 

Suffered a head injury in 1975 in a car accident which led to personality changes.  Developed an alcohol dependency.  Had been promoted beyond his ability.  As a result of the offences had lost his home, his job and his marriage.

 

Previous Convictions:   None.

 

Conclusions:

 

Count 1: 9 months' imprisonment;

Count 2: 6 months' imprisonment;

Count 3: 6 months' imprisonment;

Count 4: 3 months' imprisonment;

Count 5: 3 months' imprisonment;

Count 6: 9 months' imprisonment.

All concurrent; TOTAL: 9 months' imprisonment.

 

Sentence & Observations of the Court:

 

Count 1: 6 months' imprisonment;

Count 2: 4 months' imprisonment;

Count 3: 4 months' imprisonment;

Count 4: 3 months' imprisonment;

Count 5: 3 months' imprisonment;

Count 6: 6 months' imprisonment.

All concurrent; TOTAL: 6 months' imprisonment.

 

The Court stated that whilst this was an exceptionally sad case it nevertheless represented systematic dishonesty over a substantial period.  An immediate sentence of imprisonment was required.

 

A.R. Binnington, Esq., Crown Advocate;

Advocate Mrs. S.A. Pearmain for the accused.

 

 

 

JUDGMENT

 

THE COMMISSIONER:  Mr. Sutherland, would you stand up, please.  This is of course an exceptionally sad case from everybody's point of view.  At first sight it might appear that you were primarily an eccentric hoarder of books which did not belong to you and that your manipulations of the petty cash account were perhaps not exceptionally serious.  The reality, unfortunately, is very different, and this case involves systematic dishonesty over a substantial period as you have acknowledged by your pleas of guilty to these six counts.

 

Count 1 covers a period between 1996 and 1998 during which you stole, on your own confession, 1,004 books valued at some £10,500, the property of the States of Jersey Education Committee.  It is right that only 279 of those books are still outstanding and the rest of course have been recovered.

 

Counts 2 and 3 are concerned with the theft of 184 video cassettes and a video camera worth in total more than £2,000 and bought with Library funds.  Your wife, we are told, has reimbursed the Library in full for the cassettes.

 

Counts 4 and 5 involve a further 21 books which you bought from book dealers in England using Library funds and which were never catalogued on the Library data base.  Your wife has again reimbursed the Library in full for them.

 

Finally, in count 6, you have pleaded guilty to the dishonest falsification of 64 entries in the petty cash journal.  The offence involves necessarily an intent to defraud.  That petty cash journal was kept at the Library and the total sum amounted to some £864 and again covered a substantial period between 1966 and 1968.  These offences involved operating a double accounting system using receipts supplied by members of the staff for petty cash from the safe to obtain the same amounts from the Library imprest.

 

We are told that you are a man almost 58, of previous good character, and enjoying an excellent reputation apart from a knowledge, more widely held than you perhaps realise, that you had become, over a period of time, dependent on alcohol.  It has been urged upon us that you were in 1991 over-promoted above your abilities.  It has been a personal tragedy for you in every way.  It has had, as Mrs. Pearmain most eloquently submitted to us, a devastating effect upon you.  You should have been, said Dr. Sharkey in his report, a capable second in charge.  The whole situation was made more difficult from the beginning because of the road accident which you had had in 1975 which not only resulted in a permanent condition of the knee, but also involved sustaining a severe head injury which has affected you in one way or another ever since and which it has been suggested to us affected your judgment.

 

You have lost apparently, and this again is tragic, not merely, of course, your career and pension prospects, at least in part, but you have lost your marriage and you have had a most humiliating experience both within your family and outside.  We are told that your firm intention now is to leave Jersey as soon as possible.

 

This is nevertheless, this Court has concluded, a case where an immediate sentence of imprisonment is required.  No other course would be appropriate in the judgment of the Court.  But having regard to everything that we have heard and the factor of your plea of guilty, albeit at the very last moment, the Court has decided to reduce slightly the sentences moved for on behalf of the Crown.  The sentences therefore will be: on count 1, you are sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment; on count 2, you are sentenced to 4 months' imprisonment; on count 3, you are sentenced to 4 months' imprisonment; on count 4, you are sentenced to 3 months' imprisonment; on count 5, you are sentenced to 3 months' imprisonment; on count 6, you are sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment; all those sentences to run concurrently, making a total of 6 months' imprisonment in all.  In addition, you must pay the sum of £2,000 towards the costs of the prosecution which we note in passing would necessarily have been substantially reduced had you given more assistance at an earlier stage.

 

 

Authorities

 

Barrick (1985) 81 Cr. App. R. 78;

 

Clark (1998) 2 Cr. App. R. 137;

 

A.G.-v-Magrico ( 27^th February, 1998) Jersey Unreported;

 

Weston-v-A.G. (1980) JJ 43 CofA;

 

A.G.-v-Hamilton & two others (3^rd June, 1999) Jersey Unreported.