AGAR, BATES, NEAL & C° II0, EDMUND STREET
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS BIRMINGHAM
8 Nov 1924
The Chairman of the Committee of Management
Birmingham Municipal Bank
Birmingham
Dear Sir
Duddeston Branch
Defalcations
Second Supplementary Report
In the course of our examination of the Depositors' Pass Books in connection with the
above, we observed in the ledger account for Hilda Titcombe No 3654 (which had a deposit 9th September 1924 of £7.5.3) which appeared
to us to call for investigation in face of the fact that the Depositor referred to had never previously deposited more than 4d. at
a time.
When we received the Pass Book it showed a credit balance of 3/7d. only, whereas the Ledger account gave a credit
balance of £7.8.10 so that our suspicion regarding the above named entry of 9th September of £7.5.3 was well founded in view of the
fact that Crump had used Pass Book No 3654 for the Duddeston & Nechells Ex-Service Men's Club for the amounts referred to in our
supplementary report 4th November 1924, £83.1.6 and £78.9.9. This Pass Book, as stated in our supplementary report of 4th November
1924, is not forthcoming, although we have seen the receipt for it which Crump gave to Dormer of the Ex-Service Men's Club.
We
have now obtained the Municipal Bank Counter Record Sheet for 9th September 1924 on which there is an entry as follows:
Account No Amount Depositor's Name
3654 £7 5 3 D & N Ex.
Crump himself
posted this item to the Ledger account of Hilda Titcombe in spite of the fact that such name did not appear on the Counter Record
Sheet. Had another Member of the Bank Staff performed the duty of posting to the Ledger, the discrepancy between the name of the account
on the Counter Record Sheet and the name in the Ledger would have revealed itself, and is further evidence in support of our recommendation
of 24th October 1924 "Subsidiary Item No 1. Division of work amongst Staff".
In order that Pass Book No 3654, Hilda Titcombe,
could be certified by us as agreeing with the Ledger account at 3/7d for this number and name, we have transferred £7.5.3 from that
account to a Suspense Account in the Duddeston Ledger until the whole matter can be cleared up.
The revised summary of misappropriations
will now stand as under:
Case No 1 £20 - -
No 2 123 10 -
No 3 200 - -
No 4 169 13 11
No 5 10 - -
523 3 11
Add
Defalcations re Ex-Service
Men's Club as per
Supplementary Report
4 Nov 1924 181 11 3
704 15 2
Less
Case No 6 re A/c
Hilda Titcombe 7 5 3
£697 9 11 plus interest & adjustments.
At this stage you may be glad to have our report of the Duddeston Branch
Pass Book examinations up to the present date. Below we append it:
Total Pass Books examined to
7th November 1924 2946 representing in gross amount 132586 19 11
Total Pass Books not examined 2450 do 4255 19 7
Totals 5396 do £ 136842 19 6
Of the 2946 Pass Books examined 2164 had each a balance of £5 and over representing
a gross amount of £131229 0 0
Of the 2450 Pass Books not examined 49 only had each a balance of £5 or over representing
a gross amount of £2376 10 1
Of the 2401 Pass Books not examined each had a balance of less than £5 representing
a gross amount of £2079 9 6
Yours faithfully,
Agar, Bates, Neal & Co