This week 60 years ago: Finsbury bookkeeper stole ‘£92k’ from employer in two years

A bookkeeper managed to steal the equivalent of £92,000 from her employers over two and a half years before they realised anything was amiss.

The 40-year-old woman, of St Clement’s Buildings in Lever Street, Finsbury, worked for the Bloomsbury Duplicating Service.

She admitted stealing £4,296 from her employers – the equivalent of £92,000 today – at Clerkenwell Magistrates’ Court.

She told police she spent up to £10 a week on booze and £12 a week on gambling.

Meanwhile, a coroner praised a girl from St John’s Ambulance Brigade for her attempts to save a man who had fallen from a moving bus in Wells Terrace, Finsbury Park.

The 49-year-old man, a hotel cook from Gillespie Road, Highbury, lost his grip on a hand rail and fell. Joyce Edrich, of Hornsey Road, was quick to give first aid but the man died of serious injuries.

The inquest, at St Pancras Coroner’s Court, also heard the man used some of his last breaths to exonerate the bus driver of any blame.