Larceny by clerks or servants

Offence title:

Larceny by clerks or servants

Act:

156 Crimes Act (NSW)

Offence:

Any employee or contractor (clerk or servant), who steals anything belonging to, or in the possession of, their employer (master) commits an offence.

Penalty:

Imprisonment 10 years.

Summary/Indictable/mixed:

Mixed

Jurisdiction:

Local, District or Supreme Court.

How committed:

Person A is employed as a retail assistant by company B. At the end of the working day Person A places items of stock into their bag and leaves without paying for the stock.

Important note:

What is a clerk or servant? Every person employed for any purpose, as, or in the capacity of, a clerk, or servant, or as a collector of moneys, although temporarily only, or employed also by other persons, or employed to pay as well as receive moneys, or although the person had no authority from his or her employer to receive money, or other property, on his or her account, shall be deemed a clerk, or servant.

S. 161 Proof of general deficiency in accounts: On the prosecution of a person for larceny, or embezzlement as a clerk, or servant, or as a person employed in the Public Service, where the charge is in respect of money, it shall not be necessary to prove the larceny, or embezzlement, by the accused of any specific sum of money, if there is proof of a general deficiency on the examination of the books of account, or entries kept, or made by him or her, or otherwise, and the jury are satisfied that he or she stole, or fraudulently embezzled the deficient money, or any part thereof.

Embezzlement is an alternative verdict to Larceny as a clerk of servant embezzlement.