Odger's English Common Law

362 EMBEZZLEMENT, &C.
without any authority to sell, negotiate, transfer or pledge
the same. 1
Falsification of Accounts.
It was found that the path was often prepared for acts of
embezzlement and other frauds by false entries being made by
a clerk in the ledgers and other books of account of his
employer, and also that such dishonest practices were often
after their commission cloaked or concealed by similar fraudu-
lent entries. Hence in the year 1875 an Act 2 was passed
which makes the falsification of such books of account, with
intent to defraud, a crime in itself, whether any pecuniary
loss is thereby occasioned to the prisoner's employer or not.
It enacts that any clerk or servant or the officer of any com-
pany or corporation, who wilfully and with intent to defraud
destroys, alters, mutilates or falsifies any book, paper or
account belonging to or in the possession of his employer, or
makes false entries therein, is guilty of a misdemeanour
and liable to seven years' penal servitude. 3 -Falsifying the
mechanical means whereby an account is brought into exist-
ence, such as a taximeter, is falsifying an account within the
meaning of this Act. 4
But it is no offence under this Act
for the servant of A., with however fraudulent an intent, to
make false entries in the books of B. 5
Fraudulent Conversion.
Later it became necessary to pass another Act to deal with
certain cases of fraudulent misappropriation, which did not
clearly fall within the legal definition of either of the crimes
larceny or embezzlement. If a factor or other agent, who
is entrusted with goods for sale, converts them to his own use
before any sale is effected, he is clearly guilty of larceny by
a bailee. If he sells the goods and appropriates the proceeds,
1
See ss. 75 and 76 of the Larceny Act, 1861, which are not repealed, and es. 20
and 22 of the Larceny Act, 1916.
2
38 & 39 Vict. c. 24. See indictment, No 11, in the Appendix.
8 As to false entries or alterations in the books of the Bank of England or of the
Bank of Ireland, see 24 & 25 Vict. c. 98, s. 5, which is not repealed by the Forgery Act,
1913.
4 JR. v. Salomon!, [1909] 2 K. B. 980.
R. v. Palin, [1906] 1 K. B. 7.